Finding and creating work...

I wrote a play once.

Scratch that... I wrote a full-length historical play about the women's suffrage movement (minus one scene of dialogue that was never really to my liking), a one-act black comedy about intervention, two outlines for a dysfunctional family comedy (that I wrote while I was high on drugs from my oral surgery), and half of a two-woman/one man cabaret.

While a few close friends have heard about (and some have even read parts of) the former, none of my latter works have been seen by human eyes.

I had originally hoped to workshop and premiere 'Ain't I a Woman' (which is still a working title) this spring, but negotiations fell apart and I ended up booking so much acting work that I had little time to write, edit, refine, etc. Furthermore, the local actresses that I would call upon for casting have been quite busy themselves, so the project was put on hold indefinitely.

I'm two weeks from going to Arkansas for a show, where I'll be a bit more isolated than I am now - a perfect opportunity (with fewer distractions) to write during my free time. I'm almost giddy at the prospect!

Over the next two weeks, I'll be packing and prepping, learning lines and music, and finishing production of the show I'm currently running. Then it's two months in Little Rock followed by two more weeks of packing to move out of my rental house by the second week of June. It's both frantic and static - which is difficult for me to deal with. I have no plan for post-June. The work I have for next season doesn't start until after the holidays - which means I have six months of work to book. Stat.

I proudly cling to the fact that I live in poverty in exchange for working in an industry that I have great passion for. But being an actor means I'm basically professionally unemployed. I've never collected unemployment from the government in my life - though I did have AHCCCS (government insurance) when I was pregnant with my son. I'd like to keep it that way... but I find that my home state is no longer as fruitful in the arts as it once was. There's just not enough sustainable work year-round and so I've had to travel more and more with each year to find enough work to pay my bills.

And thus my decision was made... to transition out of the desert and to some place more artist-friendly. I've been to NYC twice in the last 6 months for auditions, but I don't feel comfortable living there because it's SO freakin' expensive!! Unfortunately, Chicago isn't much better.
And so it begins that in the next three months, I will be finishing my plays so they can be submitted for workshop. I will be crashing every general audition and cattle call that I can get my happy ass into. I will be canvassing agencies and littering their offices and email inboxes with headshots and resumes. And I will continue pricing and scouting real estate in Florida, New England, and the Pacific Northwest.

Down to a wing and a prayer, I embark on this journey that will be 'Next to Normal'... holding my breath and keeping my fingers crossed the whole way. I will find good work and I will create good work. This is my goal.

I guess I'm hoping this will serve as a heads-up that I intend to be a bit of a recluse for the next two months. Little Rock is a beautiful city that I find artistically inspiring, so I will use that to my advantage as I finish writing... if nothing else, because I want to be able to claim more than just "I wrote a play once".