BOAT Festival

I don't know why/how this happened to me again, but I wrote a one-act for the local One Act Theatre festival which starts on Monday. We (of course) are ready in spite of minimal rehearsals, and in spite of the fact that this play was supposed to have been a result of a series of meetings over the course of 4 weeks, with survivors of loss, which never happened. Instead, I met individually with moms who lost children, moms of young children who lost husbands and my own personal experience of losing a childhood friend. The play touches on losses due to cancer, the pipeline explosion, and random accidents. My favorite part is that I incorporate the positive power of MySpace, as the kids use their blogs to tell their personal stories.

(Just an aside to this, when I log out of Blogspot, I sometimes watch the Blogs scroll as they are updated. Last week, I happened upon a blog of a family who are still reeling from the suicide of their 20 year old daughter/sister/cousin/aunt the year before. And they all react differently. Just like in the play. Coincidence? I think not.)

All in all, "Good Grief" is not a slap-happy show, but I expect it to be powerful. Another one of my "Weepy Shows" I know, but I feel that teen grief is an issue that is swept under the carpet because no one wants to deal, and if they do, they don't know how.

I have a great cast of nine males and females, ages 14-65. It's good to work with talented friends, and equally talented actors I have never met before.

I just found out a non-profit group in town is finally having a workshop to talk about this issue. I tried to get my old place of employment to do a group on grief last fall, and my supervisor said to "wait." OK, I'm done waiting now....

I'm inviting theatre and school district acquaintances to come and see the show, with the hope that they will invite us to tour at their school. Of course, I'm expecting this will prompt lots of desire for a grief group, and I'm hoping the void is filled quickly, before someone lives to regret their procrastination....