Timely Blogging Fail

Finally banging out this latest update to appease the demands of my many fans (see the 1 comment on my previous entry). I’d love to have you think that the delay has been simply a ploy to keep, you, my readers, in a frenzy of anticipation. I’m certain many of you have gone mad from the suspense of awaiting my latest entry.

However, this was not my intention. The last two weeks have been a rude awakening for me. Here I went to the trouble a writing a proclamation of my noble mission, complete with dramatic back story and intrepid do or die attitude, and much to my surprise, the universe did not beginning revolving around the Showing Up Project.

Not a single producer has called begging to be my mentor and share their secrets. Oprah has not offering to finance the project, put her name on it a la Color Purple and let me come on her show as one of her favorite things. And I certainly haven’t suddenly developed the time, inspiration and attention span necessary to keep up a blog.

Nay, the last few weeks have been a bit of a whirl of school, work, friends, theatergoing and general merrymaking, and I confess there hasn’t even been an hour in the last few weeks that could have been devoted to blogging. Well, that’s not true either. But merrymaking takes a lot out of you. Most nights, when I finally sat down to write, I could be found within 10 minutes passed out on my desk, my fingers resting hopefully on my keyboard, the cruel glare of the blank word document shining sadly on my slumbering form.

Which leads me to the first lesson learned during this project: I have to make time for this stuff (when I’m rested or at least heavily caffeinated), or it’s never going to happen. So I resolve, here and now, no matter how tired or busy or hungover I may be, to write one update a week until the project is complete. If I fail, my readers may drag to the town square for a public flogging.

Still, there has been some progress made in the last few weeks. Firstly, I’m taking a finance class at school, to ensure that I don’t unintentionally launder money or set up a Ponzi scheme or something while pursuing investors. It’s a major fear of mine that I may accidentally break the law doing this thing, so I’m contacting some groups for emerging artists who may be able to advise me on how to avoid what I’m sure would be a pleasant enough, if not entirely desirable marriage to my cell-mate in federal prison, Rhonda.

The most important development in the project, however, is that I think I’ve found my play. My darling boyfriend, who, unlike me (bad future producer), reads plays for fun, provided me with some favorites from his library. A not-entirely-appropriate love for Woody Allen almost led me to chose Play It Again, Sam, and with all the Woody-files I know I’m certain it would not have been difficult to find a plentiful audience for this play. However, another piece the boyfriend gave me blew me completely away: John Cariani’s Almost, Maine.

Set in a fictional town basically in the snowy center of Maine, the play is a collection of scenes about people in, or falling in, or falling out of, love. It can have a cast of anywhere from 4-19, a set as elaborate or simple as you wish, and will cost almost nothing. More than that, however, it warmed my stony, cynical heart and made me feel not one but several emotions. I even went so far as to express these emotions via tears and laughter.

I fell in love with Almost, Maine from the first line. If there’s anything I’ve learned from producers I’ve come in contact with, it’s that you have to love what you’re working on, because you’re doing to be dealing with it for a LONG time. I’m thrilled by the prospect of really digging into this thing

So, it seems, the next steps in my journey are laid out for me:

-Inquire about the pricing, etc for the rights for Almost, Maine
-Make appointments with advisors to prevent crime and start the ball rolling on setting up an LLC or 501 C3. Also meet with friends who’ve done this kind of thing to get much needed advice

And most exciting:

-assemble a crack team of cohorts to assist me in my mission, because I won’t be able to do it alone.

I may not need any henchmen just yet, but if anyone’s reading this who is intrigued by the idea of working on the project in any capacity, let me know!

Until we meet again, which will just happen to be on or before Thursday, October 1st at 12:23 pm!