Congratulate me, people. I just completed a dismal first draft of As You Wish. It took only half a year!
Stay tuned for: an office comedy-slash-outbreak thriller? Revisions to dormant plays?
Or six more months of nothing!
I was nearly finished with a first draft of As You Wish. Like The Egypt Play before it, this first draft will contain no excitement, but a structure will soon stand proudly, ready for a second draft beautification.
Soon would normally mean soon, but instead I bought a Nintendo DS! Metroid Fusion, Yoshi’s Island, and Rocket Slime have laid waste to any productivity.
I’ve also been failing to attend theatre! I jumped in my car last month for a show directed by former co-worker Adam Immerwahr. I then spent the rest of the night circling West Orange.
Tonight I was equally unsuccessful on foot in lower Manhattan trying to find James Comtois’s Suburban Peepshow. I missed curtain and collapsed in front of the Angelika. I walked in and watched a mainstream French comedy. With the right songwriters, The Valet could easily become a Dirty Rotten Scoundrels-esque musical.
Though they may not let me back into the Angelika, after I shouted, “What is this Guy Maddin parody?!” at the screen during previews. Especially because it was for an actual Guy Maddin movie.
Oh, Guy, you’re aiming for Méliès, but your trailer looks like it’s for the Marilyn Manson S&M video from Lost Highway.
I realize, now that I’m writing a play based in part on I Dream of Jeannie, that I have not seen an episode of I Dream of Jeannie for 12 years.
Maybe more than 12 years. I saw the film Apollo 13 in 1995, which featured a small clip of Jeannie—an example of what Americans in 1970 would rather watch than a NASA launch. That was my final Jeannie sighting—until tonight.
Through the power of BitTorrent, I am watching the (unaired?) pilot episode of I Dream of Jeannie and taking notes. I might pass out before I finish, but it’s vital that I refamiliarize myself with Majors Nelson and Healey.
Months ago I spent long hours in the Princeton University library, poring over Arabic myths I needed for the first act of As You Wish. Now I’m watching sitcoms. I guess I won’t blame you if you leave after the first act.