Mike Mariano

After months of procrastination, I now have a PDF copy of The Cloak Of Horus! on this site for you to read.

Let’s write down the process for making this PDF before I forget:

1. Take the HTML copy of the script and open it in Microsoft Word. Not OpenOffice.org. Microsoft Word will preserve most of the HTML formatting and styles, while OpenOffice.org treats it like plain text. For me, opening it in Microsoft Word means opening it at work or on my parents’ computer. From this point on, editing can be done in either word processor.
2. Change the page margins: 1.5 inches on the left, 1 on the right.
3. Add a title page with the title, author, and contact information.
4. Add page numbers to the top right corner of the page. Make sure there is an offset of -1 (to account for the title page).
5. Go through the script and put manual page breaks at the bottom of every page (this is actually easier to do at the top of every page in OpenOffice.org). Make sure these page breaks do not separate character heading from their dialogue. If there is a natural separation due to stage directions, put a new character heading at the beginning of their dialogue on the new page.
6. That’s it!

One other bonus: I am now using the typeface of Verdana on both versions of The Cloak Of Horus!. I like monospaced, fake-typewriter fonts a lot, actually, but I want to try to see if these are any easier to read. I find it a bit smoother, but I had to increase the line spacing a lot. This will waste many more trees!

Enjoy this very minor website change!

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.