The Third Time is a Charm

A great deal has happened since my last entry. I have met so many strange, beautiful, and awful people in this vibrant city. From now on I must take better care to make note of my notable encounters, or they will be lost forever when my memory shuffles them out. I have crossed paths with the generous, the insane, the disgruntled, the broken, the guileful, the charming, the genuine. Oftentimes several of these traits are bundled claustrophobically in a single person.

I suppose there are two recent highlights that I should especially mention. The first is getting to see a few friends, including Dan and Jess, briefly, and Meredith, as she passed not once but twice through the city. She got me on a bicycle. I have ridden a bicycle once or twice in the past decade or so, and only then experimentally. As far as it being "like riding a bike," that adage is only half-true. The ability to balance returned instantly; the ability to manuever definitely did not. Once we found a clear path, my terror started to fade, and I enjoyed myself. I also recently got to see Katie, along with a few other of my friends and coworkers, at the staged reading of Custum Culur, which is what I want to mention next.

Last night the newest draft of Custum Culur received a staged reading at The Second City. It's true what they say about having connections. The script went over much better than I was expecting it to. Apparently the story made sense to everyone this time around, which is good, and the problems that were criticized in the previous draft seem to have been fixed, at least by all accounts. I respect and put a lot of stock into the opinions of everyone that was in attendance.

One of my coworkers, Shea, asked me today how it went, and said that he thought such an endeavor was "brave." I sort of agree with him. I feel that writing is a very vulnerable art form, much more so than acting. When you are acting, you are being judged, certainly, on the quality of your performance and your level of skill as an actor. Perhaps the audience is also judging your physical appearance, other superficial things. When you are the playwright, they are judging not only your skill, but also your ideas. The quality, and relevancy, of your thoughts and feelings. In order to share them you must either be willing to face humiliation for your art, or have an ego that's immune to it. I hope I'm the former, or at the very least a healthy mix.