Pitching

I went down to London to talk about the commission with the Drum on Tuesday.  I don't find any kind of pitching easy and this wasn't easy at all.  Not because of any lack of sympathy from David who sat patiently through my disjointed ramblings, but because I'd convinced myself that I wanted to go with one idea and as I started to explain it began to unravel in front of me and I realised that what I really wanted to do was something else entirely. That's why they're giving me time to think.  But I have felt under pressure - self induced - to try and come up with a killer idea, and that is a really stupid thing to do. Now having gone through that process with David I feel much freer and the other idea which interested him immediately - when I tried to elaborate after my first sentence he shut me up, which was very clever, and told me to not say any more but go away and think about it which stopped me destroying its potential on the spot - is gently establishing itself in my head.  My task now is to write up the ideas I presented, there were three in all, and send them to him.  So I've started with the one I now like least that I did like the most just to make sure I haven't missed a trick.  Then I'll work on the one I do like which is tugging at my sleeve waiting for me to start writing a first draft. 
Then it's down to the Post Office with a handful of copies of the We Didn't Mean to go to Sea playscript - published by aurorametro and available from amazon and all good booksellers - for those who might be interested.  You never know your luck

Now it gets serious.

A bit of good news on Friday - My Name is Stephen Luckwell has squairmed its way through options and will be on Radio 4 next year.  Apparently I have to sign two contracts. One, as the writer of the original play, giving myself permission to adapt the piece, and the second, as the adapter accepting the commission.  So much reading of the script I think before I start to turn it into a three hander. 
On Sunday Looking for the Rainbow came to an end at Lakeside - a theatre on the Nottingham University campus, not the shopping centre in Essex - and that was fun.  I hadn't seen it for six weeks and it had played itself in well.  My three year old next door neighbour seemed to like it. 
This week I have to finish part one rewrites on Buckland, and get my ideas down for the piece for Plymouth as I have the first meeting  with them in London next Tuesday and I think they might be expecting something a little more concrete that I have to offer at this exact moment.
Buckland I want to finish today, which is why I've put off starting by doing this instead. I did a draft before I went away. Read it last week and rejigged it - cut, moved bits about, found a through line for all the characters that I was pleased with and came up with the thrust of the last scene/song that hadn't been working. Then on Friday I started going through it page bu page, cleaning it up, and making all the links and connections that are needed to hold it together as in 'don't use a gun in act three unless the audience have seen it in act one', said by I don't remember who.  I hope to send that off today, ready for the meeting on Monday.  Then it's heads down for reworking part two, which is sort of uncharted territory.
Memo to self : try and forget that the Tour has started and each day's stage is live on Eurosport.

Back to Work.

I haven't had a month's holiday since I was a student.  First night back I woke up in a panic.  Why had I been away so long?  How was I going to meet the deadlines? Then I remembered it was the end of June not the end of August. Highlights?  South Pacific at the Lincoln Centre which I didn't expect to like and loved. The Picasso at the Met. Cartier Bresson at MOMA.  Ahmad Jamal at the Bluenote.  Not bad for the first three days.
And now back to work.
I got back to a copy of We Didn't Mean to go to Sea - published by aurorametro and available from all good booksellers - a rewrite for the Buckland musical and two weeks to firm up my ideas for the Plymouth commission.  On this one I'm clearer on what I don't want to write than on what I do which is a step in the right direction.
And I have been working since Monday without a single displacement activity. Until now.