Glen Street Theatre announced to their patrons that The Divine Plan was pulled from their schedule due to creative differences between the production company & the writers.
Although having the play pulled was regrettable, the fact that the proposed stage version was different to the script we wrote probably made the decision inevitable.
Watch this space....
For the past few days Ravi & I have made up two-thirds of a judging panel for "The Divine Plan" auditions. I have to say, I was very impressed with the calibre of acting talent that came to audition. We saw actors who had trained at NIDA, various acting schools & colleges, acted in numerous plays & films. It was amazing to see them use their craft. Sometimes the transformations were surprising - seemingly shy people exuded an air of confidence & a voice unmatched in depth & clarity as they uttered the words Ravi & I had written, giving us their interpretation of the characters we had created. And that was the real buzz that I got - seeing these characters that had only previously existed in our heads, leap out of the pages of our bound scripts & take on the form of flesh & blood. Our characters stood before us and demanded to be acknowledged. I pictured a variety of different Tisiphones & Virginias before me, some like the image & personality we envisaged when we wrote the play, others taking on different forms that also worked. That was the most exciting thing of all. This is one of the reasons why I write.
Set your calendars for:
when "The Divine Plan" hits the stage at Glen Street Theatre. Audition dates are:
Locations for auditions will be confirmed. Click here for more details. Click here to access Act 1 Scene 1 of "The Divine Plan."
Picture originally from A Different Corner Productions.
Ravi & I have finally finished writing the entire stage play script for "The Divine Plan" - a play scheduled for staging in September 2007. To whet your apetite, click here to access a copy of Act 1 Scene 1 of "The Divine Plan" on The Storyteller blog. Let us know what you think. Closer to September I'll release more information regarding venue, dates, times & ticket price. Very exciting!
At last! Delirious with fever from a virus I've been doing battle with, I've written the first episode of my running serial about the Super Historical Friends (based on my fledgling collection of action figures - Albert Einstein, Leonardo Da Vinci & Jesus Christ). Read about how they came together to form the SUPER HISTORICAL FRIENDS! You'll find the episode on The Storyteller blog.
The Storyteller is here! Click here to see what I've been working on.....
Picture originally uploaded by digikuva.
Ravi & I got back from Brisbane late last night. I was there to attend our annual 3-day sales conference & give a presentation on my area of responsibility - product, research & analytics. It was a strange sensation for me recognising most of the BDMs through their name tags & voices. Since they are scattered around Australia I don't get to see them face-face-face. Contact is usually in the form of emails, phone calls & through intermediaries like their state managers. So I walked in with preconceived notions of what they looked like, only to have the opposite likeness wearing the name badges. Unfortunately no scandal or hanky-panky to report (with the exception of one of the new BDMs getting slapped in the face by a woman at Michael's bar).
I gave my presentation on Tuesday & it went really well. My allotted time was half an hour but I was allowed to speak for an hour since I had teh audience engaged (despite the show of numbers, charts, normally boring stuff). They applauded my energy & commented on how I looked natural up there (even asking if I ever thought about becoming a BDM) but I have to admit, it has taken me a long time (& a lot of presentations in my professional career) to hone my presentation skills. I am naturally chatty so I've never really been shy to get up & speak in front of an audience (I love attention). My downfall has usually been organising the content of my speech/presentation in a manner that can be easily understood by people not in my profession. But I can safely say that I'm at a stage now where it is second nature to me to organise my thoughts for my mouth to follow (rather than the other way around). It also helps that I'm a whiz at Powerpoint, so my presentations are only limited by the limitations of the software rather than my own.
Most of my preparation involved the Powerpoint slides with hyperlinked files & lots of photo imagery (not the crappy clipart stuff which should be banned) to combat the dryness of numbers. The words that spilled out of my mouth were on the fly. My introduction ended up being the following:
"Hi. I've had an opportunity to sit & listen to your growth review plans, so now it's my turn. (Audience laughter) I'm going to take you through my product & analytics plan for financial year 2007. What I want you to take away from my presentation are 2 things: one, a greater understanding of what I do in my role, & two, I want you to go away afterwards & think about how I can help you perform your role optimally in relation to securing new business, in growing current business, & servicing customers. I also want you to have fun - I'm going to rock your world (pause) with charts (pause due to audience laughter), with tables (pause due to audience laughter), with process maps (audience laughter). And if I don't, then use this as an exercise in what not to do - over-promise, undeliver. (Audience laughter)"
I also pepper my presentations with personal anecdotes which include the audience - in this case elaborating on instances where BDMs or customers have given me grief. It normally keeps the audience engaged when I'm ploughing through numerically-heavy material. When I finished, I was sorry to leave the spotlight but felt a high that can only be born from recognition of doing something well in front of your superiors, peers & subordinates. Terry Hawkins believes there are 3 types of public speakers: (1) the content-speaker; (2) the entertaining speaker; (3) the inspiring speaker. The content speaker is driven by getting his message across. The entertaining speaker is driven by engaging the audience. The inspiring speaker is driven by motivating the audience to answer a call to action after the presentation. That's not to say that an entertaining speaker only talks about dribble or a content speaker cannot engage the audience. It's more about the personalities that hold the microphone. I'm probably more of an entertaining speaker. Which one are you?
Next thing on the agenda: eradicate funny-but-hardly-respect-&-awe-inspiring heckling from my audience. I don't know why this is, but I always seem to provoke my audience to join the spotlight with me with their funny comments & banter. Don't they know it's all about me? It's the same when I meet someone for the first time - pretty soon, they seem awfully comfortable in bagging me out. And I certainly don't start it. What's the deal?!
Picture originally uploaded by hfb.
When I received my most recent royalty payment from SynergEbooks for my novel, "Roberta: the Faerie Tales," today I checked out the Fictionwise site where most of my book sales are coming from. I was chuffed to see a ratings table on the web page of my book. 5 people had rated my book - 1 rated it 'great' & 4 rated it 'good.' Thankfully, no-one had rated it 'OK' or 'poor.'
I am just busting! Ravi & I went to see a director yesterday afternoon who is interested in making a short film from my script titled "Recess." He's quite established, having done short films (he is actually in the throes of doing 2 Tropfest entries), commercials for companies like Long Grain restaurant, music videos, projects ranging from $6K to $30K+. Ravi sent him the script last Monday & a couple of hours later, the director called Ravi to set up an appointment. The director is quite excited about the script, calling it "tight & punchy." He said that we were aiming too low if we just wanted to submit the short film to Tropfest. He believes the script is good enough to submit to the international film festivals, especially the US market who would just lap it up since it is quite topical for them right now. I didn't flinch when he mentioned Cannes. He has already shown the script to his production crew & another producer who have all agreed to come on-board. Now Ravi & I have 2-4 weeks to secure funding. Very exciting! Once contracts have been signed, etc. I'll upload a copy of my script for all to see. If anyone wants to be involved in this short film production, let me know!
Picture originally uploaded by Mushroom & Gadgets (SLM).
End of blogging drought
Wow, it has been a while since my last blog entry! My self-imposed hiatus was due to my inability to access the Internet at home (until now) since we moved house & work being especially demanding these past 3 weeks. But I'm back & lots has happened. Rather than strain the reader's eyes with drawn-out tales of our escapades, I have detailed them in bullet-points for your convenience. I may elaborate on individual events at a later date. Since my last blog entry (6th June 2007) the following has played out in the lives of Captain Booger Features, Ravi & I (in no order of chronology nor importance):
I think that about covers it. Going to sleep now . . . .
Picture originally uploaded by jenophoto.
June 30, 2007 in Adventures of Captain Booger Features, Current Affairs, Film, Games, Human Nature Channel, Own Literary Projects, Religion, Social Commentary, Social Occasions, Parties & Special Events, Theatre | Permalink | Comments (1)