AFTERGLOW - After the Affaire

Twenty-four hours ago, I was chowing down on pasta from Vitello's in Studio City at the official "wrap party" for Torrid Affaire. Well, it was sort-of the wrap party. We may bring the show back in March or shoot it as a movie. Not too sure. I may just chuck it all and go back to Harvard to finish my English Lit degree. We'll see. (For further info on the "what next" conundrum, see what my wife/co-producer wrote in her blog entry entitled "The Morning After.")

The show went very well! We came very close to a full house (47 out of 48 seats filled!) The audience was alive and engaged, really having a good time. My cast spurred on the audience and rode off into the night on a mad bull of laughter. (Yikes. My metaphors are usually better than that.)

At the close of this show, I feel a bit sad and empty. I always get like this. First, there's the period leading up to the big moment, full of running around and getting stuff done -- whoopee! And then FUMP. The high-speed activity ceases, and I'm left passed out on the couch with my dog and a half-empty cup of lukewarm tea. I hit the "shiftless" period where I just don't want to do anything. That lasts about a day and then sure enough I'm back on track, building back up. I think I mentioned this sort of thing in an earlier post (11 November 2005. Yep, I'm back at "point C".)

The neat thing is, getting stuff done leads to getting more stuff done. Or, to quote Thomas Jefferson: "It is wonderful how much may be done, if we are always doing." Here, here!

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Directing note: I ran into this quote from Buckminster Fuller during the rehearsal process:

"When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it was wrong."

I took this as advice and applied it as a director. It really holds true!

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I love being an artist. I am exactly where I want to be. I just closed a play in Los Angeles California, to a packed house. Yeah, my rent's late, my gas and electric are all way past due, and I need new tires. So what? This is the life I chose. And I feel so much richer for having made the decision to throw caution (not to mention common sense) to the wind and make a go of it out here. It's nights like last night that make all the other garbage worth it.

To end off with another neat quote: "You can save yourself with art to some extent. With art, you can cull all your answers into a magnificent synthesis." - Anne Rice

She may be a total whack-job, but she's right.