Mike Mariano

While NC-bound Thanksgiving week, I went through some old script rejections that have been untouched since their receipt. One of the Devil rejections came from the McLaren Memorial Comedy Play Writing Competition, whose staff was kind enough to include the evaluation forms used by the three judges. All playwrights get less feedback than they want (or think they get less, and don’t notice what they should), so this is a golden opportunity. Let’s see what the judges said:

Paula Abdul Not much humor, although I loved the line “Very Brady Human Sacrifice.” Should have more devil and less girlfriend.

Randy Jackson Well written and thought-provoking. Good plot, but I came away with a very dull, empty feeling.

Simon Cowell Too convoluted; not funny.

I can see it.

And from a comedy festival standpoint, I can definitely see it. I Am The Devil was just one more performer at open stand-up night, where everyone else is pulling out their best shots for “the big laugh”, something to knock their socks off. And then there’s Alice Osbourne; like Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock, she brings both joy and pain, sunshine and rain. And while the play is oh so silly, it’s a comedy primarily in the classic sense, when grim tales were considered comedies primarily because no one dies.

My next redesign of this site will likely move the plays into different categories. I want to move the Anthology works that don’t seem to connect with audiences into a section called “Unloved Children.” Plays like Two Men About to be Killed by a Comic Book Supervillain and Over The Fence, will likely find new homes there (sorry, kids), but should I Am The Devil end its life on that page, too?

This month marks three full years since I have completed this play, my last full-length. Within three years, sister show The Bill Show had been published and had come tragically close to a few productions. The Marley Show has had a unique and wonderful life onstage. (Apparently materials related to our recent Tokyo production have arrived at Dean’s mother’s house; I can’t wait to see how our play went across the world and back again.) Meanwhile I Am The Devil has won a contest distinction and some minor interest, but is it too little, too late?

Every time I go back to it, I like it. Maybe too much; maybe the play is something that will die lonely because I love its unprettyness. But Alice is still pretty to me.

Welcome to my writing anthology, now revamped and in color! Now instead of the bland, desaturated pages, you can view a wonderful site of puke green and small text! Enjoy!

While the change to the site has been mostly cosmetic, there are a few biggies. First of all, now all the plays on the site appear in a mouthwatering PDF format, which means that you’ll need Adobe Acrobat to read them. While this may mean a download for some of you out there, it’s worth it. It means you’ll see the plays as they are supposed to look, and it isn’t a abso-friggin huge download like the Word-created HTML versions of the plays were. However, good old fashioned Microsoft Word copies are also on the site, and many people can open those. Hope you like ‘em!

Because I am a control freak, I have added Production Notes for each of the plays. Granted, you don’t need these notes to understand the plays, but there are certain ways that I would do things; I’m just letting you know. You’ll find the notes on each work’s main page, and besides being helpful, they should make good reading material. Let me know what you think!

And in writing news, while most of my time is spent with the Summer Cabaret, I am working on that Untitled one-act right now, and progress is, er, progressing. Look for it soon!

PS: Here’s something SOOPER SECRET! The version of Over The Fence now on the site is a very slightly updated version. I matched the play’s formatting with Two Men and I Am The Devil, and changed some of Warren’s lines, because in retrospect I felt the stuttered dialogue was too much. So it’s not a full blown revision, but it’s worth mentioning.