The Search Continues...

Hello from beneath a pile of scripts!  I know you haven’t heard from me in a while but I’ve been slogging my way through a growing library of scripts trying to find ‘the one’ that will follow on from our wonderful ‘Elephants’!  It’s been a long process and I’m finding it really difficult to settle on a genre.  I loved the ingenious mix of comedy and drama in ‘Elephants’ but every other black comedy I’ve read so far  just hasn’t quite measured up.  There are many, many pure comedies and farces out there and I do love a good belly laugh, but then I feel we’re missing out on depth in the piece.  Conversely, with pure drama, I miss the laughs!!  I feel that I also want to try to have a slightly larger cast – build things up a bit with the second one – so some plays have been discounted purely on the basis of very small casts.  We also have to take cost and space into account.  We are hoping to go back to the Assembly Roxy for round 2 but it requires a static set as there are no wings.  I know that very imaginative things can be done with minimal sets but we had such a wonderful response to our ‘Elephants’ set that I really don’t want to disappoint with our next effort.  Period pieces can be costly on the costume front, so that’s another issue to consider.  Complicated sets and costumes therefore also get assigned to the ‘maybe later’ pile.  A few weeks ago I compiled a ‘short list’ of possibilities that I thought had promise.  I organised a read-through evening with some of my lovely, patient and accommodating friends and by the end of the night we had all agreed that none of them was ‘the one’!  Short list 2 has now been prepared and script reading evening number 2 is coming up soon.  I’m hoping that this one may be more fruitful.

Meanwhile, the kittens Frank and Myrrh are still little bundles of mischief and have recently been introduced to the outside world after their….ahem….*whispering* ’operations’!  They’ve been having daily walks with their little harnesses on attached to leads.  Strangely there’s been a bit of role reversal.  Myrrh, always the indoor adventurer and the first to try any bit of mischief, has taken a while to get used to the wide open spaces and is a bit timid about venturing too far.  Frank, on the other hand can’t get enough of it and seems desperate to be set “free from his fetters grim”.  They’ll get a few more forays with anxious parents attached and then they’ll be let loose to discover the delights through the cat flap and hopefully return safely home!

Despite my script difficulties, what I can say is that I have been overwhelmed and hugely encouraged by the number of people still talking about ‘Elephants’ and how much they enjoyed it and asking to be informed about auditions for our future productions.  I’m hoping that I can post details very soon and am very excited about growing our little company over the coming years.