Phone call this morning, a director friend of mine has secured funding to produce my play REFUGE OF LIES in New York next summer! Can you imagine? Details at my blog.

You know, it's strange how things work. The past couple years, nobody's done any of my plays, and I figured they'd pretty much run their course. Then all of a sudden this year TENT MEETING was produced at Rosebud Theatre in Alberta, REMNANT is opening the new Mustard Seed Theatre in St Louis, Covenant College in Tennessee is mounting A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR in the new year, and now this.

(Venue to be confirmed, but at the moment Theatre Row is most likely - where right now Peter Dinklage is playing in a piece directed by Ethan Hawke. Sheesh.)

Crazy.

Ron that's terrific!

If I can make the schedule work, I'll try to take this in with other A&F folks, perhaps even on the same evening. Does this also mean that you'd travel out for the opening?

FANTASTIC!!



Congratulations, Ron. You've earned every cent of every ticket sold.

Not that you'll *see* all of those cents, but still...

I said it before and I'll say it again: A Bright Particular Star is one of the best plays... best works... about art and faith that I've seen. And I want to see that one performed coast to coast. I can dream, can't I?

Hey thanks!

Yes, I'll definitely be out there for the opening. If it opens in August, Carole (my wife) and I will make a vacation of it, spend a week or so. If it's in September, I'll at least go out for a few days. Can you imagine, a New York opening! (I've kind of fixated on seeing "REFUGE OF LIES by Ron Reed" in the Off-Broadway listings in the New Yorker!)

And what a thrill it would be to share the evening with some of my A&F pals. I'll keep you posted on dates, once the venue is secured.

Well, as you go on to suggest, the financial remuneration won't amount to a whole lot. But man, a New York run. I really can't quite digest it! Life's been tough lately: this news comes just as I've been feeling respite from some of that strain, and it's quite a tonic.


It meant a lot to me that you traveled up to see that one - it's very close to my heart, and I know what an exhaustingly busy stretch you were in the middle of as well. I've still got the Shakespeare Action Figure standing proudly on my shelf!

Darrel Manson and I met up last Friday in Bellingham, by the way. He wasn't able to make it up to Vancouver to see DRIVING MISS DAISY at Pacific Theatre, but coincidentally a Pacific Theatre actress was performing a one-woman show (JAKE'S GIFT) in Bellingham, so he got a little taste. She based her show on a character she created through a three week full time mask characterization workshop I taught, which led to me building a play (MERCY WILD) around Jake and five of the other mask characters.

As for A BRIGHT PARTICULAR STAR, it's being produced in Tennessee in February, so even if Lilia and George ain't coast-to-coast just yet, they're getting around! Added later: Don't know how I got Tennessee in my brain: STAR is being staged at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

Yes, Ron, please save a few opening-night seats for us. Barring something really bad, I'll definitely be there, and hopefully we can rope Steve and some others in, too--especially the east-coasters (and you know who you are).

Hey Ron! This is awesome!!

By the way, any chance I can get a copy of Bright Particular Star?

Very, very cool, Ron.

Wow, the board is full of great news today!

Done.

Ron, I know how big a deal this is in the theatre world (playing off Broadway, I mean), and I couldn't be happier for you. Way to go! I hope the opening reviews are all kind.

And let me know about the Tennessee production -- I'll be there around that time (Nashville area) and I'd love to take it in if the timing works.

I don't think that's their specialty in that particular town. Think I'll ignore them, as I do here in my home town, just enjoy my slice of the Big Apple and let the scribes duke it out amongst themselves.


Cool! Their calendar says BPS is onstage Feb 15/16 and 22/23. The latter is when our run of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS ends, so unfortunately I won't be able to see that one. But in a couple weeks I'll be in St Louis for the opening of my strangest play, REMNANT, at Mustard Seed Theatre. Any A&Fers in St Louis area?

While I'm there, I'm going to see what looks like a pretty fun show...
(Dang. Never have figured out how to insert a picture. You wouldn't think it'd be that hard... Okay, Alan helped me at least attach it: thumbnail below.)

Check out the trailer. Fun, eh?

You should post a separate "IN ST LOUIS?" thread...they may not see this one.

Shall do!

By the way, any tips how I might insert a photo into a post?

Use the "attachments" interface when posting, or the [IMG] tag to pull in a remote image.

Okay, I managed to attach the image, but my efforts to surround a link with the [IMG] tag don't seem to have accomplished anything.

For example:

Really enjoyable show, by the way. Follows THE GODFATHER story very closely, hits all the key scenes, but renders them into iambic pentameter, and emphasizes many Shakespearean parallels. Clever, certainly, but it goes way beyond the gimmick and manages to convey some of the real tragedy of the Godfather story. If I lived in St Lou, I'd go see it a second time: since I don't, I've got to get a Vancouver theatre to produce it! (And yes, I'm considering it. But the script is on the large size for us: 7M 2W. Maybe if I blend in some emerging artists...)

I know a few more details, now. The Lion Theatre, two blocks off Times Square on 42nd Street. Opens September 12, closes September 28. I'll be there for opening (flying into NYC September 11 - hmm...), five days on my own, then my wife joins me for five more days, we fly back home September 21.

Casting yet to be confirmed, but almost for sure the lead will be Keir Dullea, who was in a cool little movie 40 years ago (and has done one or two other things since). I'll let you know more when I know more.

I've got my first 5 nights solo accomodations taken care of for under $100 a night, at the Herald Square Hotel. Anybody recommend anything decent but (relatively) inexpensive for when Carole joins me?

Ron wrote:
: I know a few more details, now. The Lion Theatre, two blocks off Times Square on 42nd Street. Opens September 12, closes September 28. I'll be there for opening (flying into NYC September 11 - hmm...), five days on my own, then my wife joins me for five more days, we fly back home September 21.

Can't bear to be there when it closes, eh?