Steve Davis of Summerstage Delafield shot this short video (with his phone camera) of the staged play reading of my one-act, "Reveille!", which took place on September 25th at Trimborn Farm in Greendale, WI. Marty Norton (left) and Megan Turner starred in this performance - which was brilliant!
I've got a professionally-filmed DVD of the entire play but it's too long to put on the Web. Any suggestions?
Megan (one of the actresses in my staged play reading, "Reveille!") took it upon herself to make some cookies for the event at Trimborn Farm on September 25th - an authentic Civil War recipe, mind you. I barely ate a piece of salami and cheese at the event (nerves). But I tried Megan's gingerbread nuts at home...very tasty.
The staged play reading of my one-act, "Reveille!", on Saturday, Sept. 25th was a huge success. 105 family and friends turned out in the threshing barn at Trimborn Farm in Greendale to witness my "coming out" party (it was the first playwriting event I've had in WI since moving back here last September from Los Angeles).
Click on READ MORE! to see a few after-show pics taken at Ray & Dot's (The Legion) in Greendale.
Jas and I with Dave Hranicka.
Uncle Bob, his brother Rick and me.
Jas and I with the Nowak's, Schmidt's and Hranicka's!
Me with actresses Megan Turner (foreground), Marty Norton and fiddler John Losiniecki.
Dean and Leslie Keller from Iowa.
Bev Schmidt, Aunt Ev (Ircink) Nowak and Barb Hranicka.
The Nowak's! Uncle Bob (left) and sister, Bev, and brother Rick.
Gary Schmidt (left), Dave Hranicka (middle) and my brother. My guess is they're talking about hunting or fishing. Dave and his wife, Barb, flew in from MN to be at the reading. Nice.
The staged play reading of my one-act, "Reveille!", on Saturday at Trimborn Farm in Greendale, WI was a great success. I'd like to thank the following people:
Special thanks to my brother Jason for helping with special effects and hauling props, my mother for preparing, hauling and serving food, all my aunts for helping set-up the food & clean-up, Uncle Butch and Uncle Rocky for providing props and Uncle Rocky for handing out programs (and for his surprise pumpkin), Joe Nowak for the wine, Aunt Ev for the hot pot and cookies, Megan Ginsberg's Civil War cookies, Jim & Ryan Sickels for carving pumpkins, and Steve Ginsberg for taking care of the raffle and name tags.
This song will be performed in my staged play reading, "Reveille!". First time I heard it I fell in love with it and had to have in the play. I like the set-up of this video.
Well, I'm not. But "Dowd" might be...if he makes it through the Civil War in one piece. Megan Turner and I portray girlfriend/boyfriend in my one-act drama, "Reveille!", which is being performed as a staged play reading September 25th at Trimborn Farm in Greendale, WI. Also stars Marty Norton as "Catherin".
Three sides of me as seen in the staged play reading of my one-act drama, "Reveille!", which takes place in 1863 Virginia. This invitation-only event takes place at the historic Trimborn Farm in Greendale, Wisconsin on September 25th. 102 RSVP's. Thanks Megan ("Amanda") for taking the shots!
"Dowd" (above), the love interest of Amanda.
Me as a Confederate soldier wearing shell jacket and forage cap. Sergeant stripes not yet sew on. Mom?!!
"Stumper", 1860's style, with western coat and beaver skin top hat.
So, the final musician I needed for my staged play reading in a week and a half is my trumpeter. Push comes to shove, I was gonna play "Reveille" and "Taps" on the harmonica. But I placed an ad on Craigslist and in two days, Bethany contacts me...willing and able to perform for my one-act, "Reveille!" , performing September 25th at Trimborn Farm in Greendale.
You can't have a play set in 1863 Virginia without a fiddler, can ya? John Losiniecki, from Milwaukee, will be accompanying the Cedar Rapids' Kellers on their gui-tars for the premiere staged play reading of my one-act drama, "Reveille!", performing September 25th at Trimborn Farm in Greendale.
"Catherin" (left), played by Marty Norton, and "Amanda", played by Megan Turner Ginsberg, star in the staged play reading of my one-act drama, "Reveille!", which takes place in 1863 Virginia. This invitation-only event takes place at the historic Trimborn Farm in Greendale, Wisconsin on September 25th. 95 RSVP's. Family, close family friends and friends. It will be quite an evening.
Click on READ MORE! to see the rest of the cast shots.
Dean Keller (left) and Jim Keller. Father and son. Posing for their cast headshots. They're playing the gui-tars for the staged play reading of my one-act, "Reveille!", the last weekend in September at Trimborn Farm in Greendale, WI.
Headed to Cedar Rapids, Iowa today for the weekend to see The Classics at Brucemore: "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and to have a read-thru of my one-act play, "Reveille!", with actresses, Marty and Megan. I'm producing a staged play reading of the play in September at Trimborn Farm in Greendale, WI.
It's been 12 years (since I moved to Cali) that I'd seen The Classics at Brucemore. I'm excited.
Kirsten (top) and Bonnie (bottom). Bonnie's a new Facebook friend with a Milwaukee connection to me (sort of) - and she's a Marquette University graduate and an actress. I'm having a staged play reading of my historical, one-act drama, "Reveille!", this fall (more on that later) and I keep my eyes open for actresses who I could potentially cast in the stage production of the play. So far I have two in Cedar Rapids, one in Seattle, one in West Virginia and one in Oregon (Bonnie).
We met for coffee at the Marquette Union this morning to discuss my play - and just talk. (She was visiting from Oregon to see a friend perform in "Sunday in the Park with George" at Marquette University, directed by my friend, Tony Clements. Good show - go see it.) I absolutely love it when the "person" I see in a head shot turns out to be "the person" I meet face-to-face.
Thanks, Bonnie. It was a pleasure...
I've barely begun to delve into self-producing my plays and I'm getting a headache. Fine - gonna start with a staged-reading of my one-act play, "Reveille!".
Trimborn Farm is a Victorian era estate located in Greendale, Wisconsin (my birthplace). Nine buildings sit (set?) on 7.5 acres, including a farmhouse, granary, lime kilns, stone barn with two silos and a threshing barn (red barn above). It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The red threshing barn was built in 1858. It's freaking perfect for "Reveille!" as the play is set in 1863 on a farm in Virginia. There's an old period buggy inside and an assortment of antique farm machinery on display.
Meeting with the powers-to-be next week. My gut tells me there's gonna be a Reveille! at the Trimborn Farm this summer. Huzzah!
Here's a snippet from a short play I'm writing called, Reveille! - about two Virginian women in 1862. Reveille! will be one of three short plays in an erotic trilogy called, AMOR NO FLUXO(PRONOUNCED “FLooSHA”), or LOVE IN FLUX.
AMANDA
Oh go on. You’re just jealous ‘cause Godey’s Ladies Book didn’t ask you to submit a story, that’s all.
DOWD
I think it’s wonderful Godey’s ran an ad and invited all its readers to send in a story – not just you.
AMANDA
How would you know? You never read Godey’s so how would you know the first thing about it?
DOWD
Godey’s Ladies Book is a prissy piece of trash for passin’ time and nothing more. Why, any soul in his right mind would pay good money for the paper it’s printed on just so as he – or she – could have something fittin’ to use in the washroom. And I am not referring to washing one’s hands either.
AMANDA
Well that’s peculiar talk coming from a lady. I don’t recall the last time such vulgarity was spoken in our home.
(Beat)
I say Godey’s is not a luxury but a necessity. With its helpful hints and its patterns and needle-work and instructions in housekeeping – why we save twice the price we pay for it in less than a year.
DOWD
Anything I’d write would put to shame 99% of the garbage in that rag – if I had the time.
AMANDA
Then why don’t you write your own story and submit it?
DOWD
The world is an unhappy place, Amanda. My demeanor would have to be on a higher plain for me to even consider the task of sitting down to write.
AMANDA
Well if the world were in a better place, what would you write about then?
(Beat)
Oh, come on. Don’t be a sour puss. Tell me.
DOWD
(Reflecting.)
I suppose I’d write about living here in the valley – before the war...when even the faintest breeze blows in the smell of sassafras blossoms from a mile away and the mockingbirds swoop down on anyone who gets close to their nest – which they do without reservation ‘cause everyone knows you’re never to kill a mockingbird and they know it, too. I’d write about how that dog of yours slouches around so much so you’d think he were dead, except for when he scratches the fleas off his back and nips at the honey bees flying about his head.
(Beat)
Or the farm – I’d write about the farm, and how you’re scared of feeding the chickens –
AMANDA
I am not!
DOWD
You are too. And how one day you proposed we eat the Rhode Island Red and Plymouth Rock chickens as they most certainly were Yankee-bred and would do irreparable harm to a Southerner’s palate. I’d tell of midnight walks along 4 ¼ Mile Road, lit up by the slightest sliver of a moon - like a postcard...where you can hear the rippling and splashing of Little Mountain Run in the dark as she snakes down and around through the Shenandoah Valley, and the horned owl joins the bullfrog and the crickets in a symphony that only God could compose. Or the lonesome whistle of the Blue Ridge Railway...clickety-clackety - reminding me there’s a world to explore beyond this valley. I’d write how exhausted I am after drinkin’ it all in and how I’m able to get a full night’s sleep and wake up refreshed, ready to experience it all over again.
(Beat)
Not like now...where the only smells in the valley are of death and the only sounds are the pangs of innocent folk suffering because of some men’s war. Not like now when I worry that soldiers might steal off with the horses in the middle of the night or that I might awaken to a rifle barrel stuck in my gut - or worse. Where the roads and city streets are filled with blue troops and gray troops – depending on who's in control at the time - marching off to fight and the incessant grumblings of war by townspeople who have nothing else to talk about ‘cause there is nothing else to talk about.
(Beat)
I smell sassafras occasionally. And I’m not saying the crickets have stopped chirping or Ollie stopped shooing bees all together. But it’s - everything I cherish about this place has been smothered by war. The trains bring men into town to fight one another. The air is filled with smoke and fire. The Yankees’ blockade stopped Little Mountain Run from rippling and splashing. People I know have died or moved away. The...the ecstasy I once felt here is gone – replaced with chaos and fear. I used to enjoy the rain – a steady, long, slow rain. It washed the earth clean and made everything smell reborn...new – like fresh laundry that’s come in outta the sun and the wind. The only rain that falls now brings with it the smell of death and the streets run with the blood of young men who are lost forever. And I’m afraid that everything will change and I will forget what it was like.
(Sheepishly.)
I didn’t mean to go and on.
(Beat)
That’s what I’d write about. The way things used to be. Our reality is the war - what joy would there be in writing about that?
AMANDA
Well I’m fairly certain that’s not the slant Godey’s is aspiring it’s readers to write about – all the blood and guts and such. I, for one, choose to concentrate on the positive aspects of the day. War or no war.
DOWD
You be optimistic for both of us. Maybe something good will come of it.
AMANDA
Godey’s Ladies Book publishing my story would be a positive start, I’d say.
(Beat)
Sounds like a storybook – all that, fluff you were talking about. You came up with all that on your own?
DOWD
It wasn’t difficult. I’ve lived it all my life.
AMANDA
(Beat)
“Sassafras blossoms”. I like that. May I use it in my narration? For Godey’s?
DOWD
Not too much fluff for you, I hope.
AMANDA
Well...
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