Friday, May 28th, 2010 | Permalink
Rodney Robbins here. If you’re curious about my new play “House of Many Rooms,” just turn up your speakers and check out the video below. I talk a little bit about the play and the cast, then move right into reading scenes one and two. I can only read one or two scenes at a time because YouTube.com only allows users to post video of 10 minutes or less. Fun stuff. I’ll be using more character voices in other scenes–just to keep in moving. Enjoy.
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Permalink
Hello. Rodney Robbins, the Singing Playwright here. I was just reading a biography of Oscar Wilde. According to Smith, the biographer, Wilde believed “the artist’s mission was to create beauty and confront injustice and do so with a flourish.” Nice.
My hero G. B. Shaw said, “My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.” I like that one even better.
I’ve thought of several variations on what I do. “First you dream it up, then you write it down.” That’s a pretty good description of how I write. So is this: “I look into other worlds and write down what I see.” I also like this description of what I do, “I write fantastic stories, with realistic characters and a twist!” For more information about me, read the Rodney Robbins Fun Autobiography here.
So tell us:
Click on the “Comment” link below and share your ideas.
Sunday, May 9th, 2010 | Permalink
When you do all the work of writing a new play, you enjoy a sense of pride and want to finish the job and send your new play out to theater companies. Of course, you’ll want to track your submissions. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Here is how famous Western novelist Louis LaMour did it with his books, and he tracked 105 books to publication. (To read more about my new play, click here.)
Tracking Your New Play
That’s it!
Now, if you want to get clever, you could include the date you submitted the play, and you might write down a list of a dozen companies you are going to submit to, then work you way down the list. The key here is to keep it simple and keep the water churning. Send those scripts out and keep following up (politely and not too often) till you get an answer. Remember, if you are going to get a no, you want to get it right away so you can move on. Don’t let the sales aspect of being a writer stop you. Just keep it simple and start on that next play. That’s what Louis LaMour would do.
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010 | Permalink
Here is a wonderful teaser sort of commercial put out by the Mixed Blood Theater for the play “The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Diety” by Kristoffer Diaz.
As an award winning former video producer, I can tell you, this is about the simplest commercial you can shoot. You set your lead actor up with some dramatic lighting and tell him to over act (in case you don’t realize it, you only Under Act on film or video during a closeup). Then cut this one long shot together with some nice graphics, show dates, snippets of reviews and such, and BOOM, your affordable and great looking commercial is done for very little money.
You probably have enough creative people and equipment to shoot this commercial for free. If you paid someone to do it, it should cost less than $1,000 including editing and making duplicates (dubs) for the local TV stations. This is certainly less than a half day’s worth of production and maybe two hours of editing (including time to eat a sandwich or watch a little wrestling). Take a look at the spot and tell me what you think. If you get a chance, stop by the Mixed Blood Theater in Minneapolis, MN and watch Kristopher Diaz’s wild new play.
The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity from Mixed Blood Theatre on Vimeo.
Monday, May 3rd, 2010 | Permalink
The Tony Awards are almost here–showtime is 7:00 June 13, 2010. Have you pitched a photo suggestion to your local newspaper? If you haven’t, consider one of these:
I’m not saying these will work, but they are fun and easy to pitch, so break out that cell phone and start calling today. For more background on the Tony Awards, click here.