Mike Mariano

While I hesitate to sucker you all into the trivia haven that is The Straight Dope, I found this article on urban legends interesting as it related to my short play

“Modern myth” has a long history (it dates back to 1911 at least), but it and “urban myth” suffer from the shortcoming that these stories aren’t myths in the sense that folklorists use the term. A myth is an orally transmitted story about the supernatural, believed by its traditional tellers, generally set in the distant past, and accounting for the origin of something.

It seems that my title, Urban Myth, is the worst way to refer to a “contemporary legend”, but I’m sure it’s quite suitable for a day in the life of Prometheus the Titan.

Many of you have noticed that not only am I writing less often, but what I have already written is being performed less often. That will change next week.

The Bill Show will be performed at the Woodbridge Campus of Northern Virginia Community College, performed by the Drama Club, February 27 and 28 at 7:30pm!

Prior to that, Urban Myth will be performed at Jefferson High School in Shenandoah Junction, West Virginia on Tuesday, February 24 as part of the Theatre IV class’s evening of one-act plays.

I’m excited about both productions, and you should be, too. If you are in the Beltway area this weekend or in the Shenandoah Junction area, check it out!

I may just have news for not just one, but two of my short plays. I will keep you informed.

It’s depressing that with all the projects I started in 2002, only three things made it to the site: Urban Myth, RIP, B.B., and a slight addition to Couchophilia. Off-site, I have four finished works from my Creative Writing class that I have hesitated to polish. I have projects that have been abandoned, (There’s Only One Texas, some of the Boring Science Plays, and maybe The Marley Show revision). And not least of all I have that dang Eating Disorder, which has kept me challenged for a while now. (The original idea came to me post-Green Cheese, so we’re talking close to five years.) With all that could have been accomplished, I feel it’s time to make some resolutions for 2003:

• You will see some version of Eating Disorder on the site, most likely a full-length play.
• You will also see at least one of the Boring Science Plays on the site. At least one of them is too good to pass up.
• And my own wish is that I will see The Bill Show onstage somewhere! Its time has come.

I’m busy, and my writing comes as slow as ever, but two works isn’t such a harsh task. Write me back in 2004 to tell me either you hate my procrastination or that you hate my rushed-quality work. Or perhaps both will apply.