88 is # 1

It is final.  Under the watchful eye of attentive audience members the last ballots were counted for The T Plays III.  The 88 bus (88 is the 88th Loneliest Number) eked out a victory by 4 votes.  The Mattapan Trolley (Stolen Breath) was second and continuing its rapid ascent The Red Line (Not My Mormons) was third.  Silver, Blue, Green and Orange was the placing for the final four.

Special thanks to all the writers, actors, directors and techies who made this show so much fun.  And special thanks to all who came out to see it.  It would have been lonely performing without you.

Now to figure out The T Plays 4.

One more audience to go

Tonight's sold out crowd have voted.  And the current standings:

The 88 is 5 votes ahead of Mattapan Trolley.  The Red line continues to have strong nights is a few votes back.  The Blue and Silver keep flipping a little ways back and the Green and Orange both had strong showings.  I would not want to be one of those "talking heads" on CNN trying to handicap this election.  (As I am sure there will be tomorrow).  6 seats left for our final performance.

The Home Stretch

It is clear that it will come down to each and every last vote.  The top two keep flipping (when not tied) and spots 3-7 all switched tonight.

After 6 shows....the 88 bus has a narrow lead.  The Mattapan Trolley is two votes behind.  The Red Line doubled it's points this evening (was Mitt Romney in the audience?).  The Silver and the Blue have one vote separating them as does the Orange and the Green.

Two more chances to see what all the fuss is about.  And trust me there is a lot of fuss.

How to make a T Play

A behind the scenes video showing the quick process of the T Plays III.  Special thanks to Barlow Adamson for making the video and all the artists of the T Plays for being willing subjects.

Once again....Mr. Rick Park....

So I went to the T Plays last Saturday. And as usual, I was freaking nervous. It is always nerve wracking to see one of your plays for the first time, with an audience. What if they hate it? What if I hate it? As always, I am my own worst critic and hear things that may not be heard by others, things that make me cringe inside. But I didn’t get that feeling this time. My writing made me happy. Not only my writing, but also the wonderful actors who brought my words to life. Sometimes the synergy between word and actor is so in sync, it amazes me. It also amazes me when it seems that the writers have a shared collective consciousness. Of the seven plays, three featured the word “douchebag”. Two involved bodies of water, three mentioned babies. More than one featured people (and some non-humans) trailing or spying on someone.  Also making appearances in more than one play: lesbians,  donuts and candy, and religious prayer and/or personnel.  But what really stood out for me was how lucky all of us writers were to have this group of highly skilled and dedicated actors. In the T Plays, the writers have the pressure for the first 24 hours. After that, everything switches to the shoulders of the director and the actors. The directors have to act as the “glue” between the script and the actors and have to make some very quick and calculated decisions on blocking, lighting, and all that director jazz. But the lynch pin is the actors. The actors have to memorize 10 pages of dialogue in about 2 days. They have four hours of rehearsal on the Sunday before opening and then they go right into tech. Learning lines is on their time, time outside of the theatre. They exist in a pressure cooker where they must absorb words, movement and a relationship with their fellow actor, all in 3 days before they are performing in front of an audience, with maybe 2 run throughs in the space if they are lucky. If a play has some flaws (and I think my fellow writers will agree that all of our plays do, if only in our minds), it is the actors who must navigate around them the best they can, for 9 performances. They are on the front line, every night, a mere few feet from the audience who is voting for their favorite play. In the words of Project Runway’s Tim Gunn, they have to “make it work”. And for that, we writers (and audience members) are extremely grateful. So I want to give a public shout out to the 14 amazing actors in this year’s T Plays: Brian Bernhard, Shelley Brown, Matt Chapuran, Lindsay Eagle, Kelley Estes, Derek Fraser, Nate Gundy, Louise Hamill,  Molly Kimmerling, Robyn Linden, Jeff Mahoney, Mal Malme, Kim Myatt, and Greer Rooney. If it weren’t for you all, what we write wouldn’t matter. So thanks. A lot.

Railroad Ties

After one week and five performances the standings are filled with ties.

Mattapan and the 88 lead the pack and are tied.  The Red line made a huge jump forward and almost doubled its total.  Silver and Blue are also tied.  Green and Orange while not tied only have 3 votes separating them.  And one vote for the curtain speech (Thanks, Mom).

A veteran T Play attendee complained that it was too difficult to pick just one.  I think that is good.  We have seven strong plays that all challenge and entertain.  I think how close the standings are show how strong all the pieces are this round.

Updated Standings

Another full house (all right there were two empty seats).  And the votes have been counted.

Mattapan Trolley has pulled ahead of the 88 bus, but there is just a few votes separating them.

The Red Line took a big jump up and the Blue Line follows just a few votes behind.  The Silver, Green and Orange all gained and just seven votes separate them.

We have a 3PM matinee tomorrow.  And as of right now we have about 24 seats available.  It's supposed to be a rainy Sunday and next weekend will be crowded as it is our closing.  Come out and check out the plays.