Bye Bye My Life Goodbye...

Ciao babies,

Well my friend, in the words of that great slave catcher "I cannot tell a lie."
Can I be real here for a second family? Why thank you.

I'm a sad lil camper at the moment. I suppose I am approaching a major transition.
I'm not quite sure which direction my life is headed. I mean, who the hell does right? My production, that I've written Fedra received it's world premiere a few weeks ago. The cast, crew and team of designers have worked so hard to mount this wonderful piece of theatre. We fought tooth and nail to get this puppy from the page to the stage. The producing company has been wonderful to us...we've received support from friends, colleagues, family but the truth of the matter is...the seats are empty.

The house count is consistently low.

Now this makes me playwright/producer get a lil fussy. It makes me think "gosh, do people not like it? I know it's a good, NO a great show. Why aren't people coming?"

Last week I went to see a matinee of Chad Diety and the theatre was nearly sold out. Today I saw Animal Crackers at the Goodman (both excellent shows by the way, highly recommended) and yet again the house was packed. This of course made me scratch my head.

Now I realize J. Nicole Brooks plays are not for everyone. They're fast paced, jagged edged, accompanied by sex and sometimes violence. I wish I could tell you I was a writer who didn't care what others think. But it's not true. I was hired to write a good play. Usually good plays beget good houses. So I have to ask: Where are they?

The theatre is centrally located, tickets are as low as 20.00, it's a racially diverse cast, a notable director and the best house manager in the game. Ugh...

As I approach the 2 weeks left mark, I feel desperation and sadness. I'm not all too sure that I'd like to go back to LA. I've got a great family here with new additions to it. I don't know what I will go back to in LA. A shitty job market and even shittier career???

Perhaps now that I've eaten an entire pizza by my lonesome, the pain will wain. I just don't want this show to be the disappointment of the season...oh gods. What would Bob Fosse do?

Uh oh, my vino glass is empty. So is my brain amigos. And so...adios.

My deep gratitude to those of you who have supported Fedra and other Lookingglass Theatre productions.

ciao
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