It has been a crazy ride indeed to be accepted, find a cast, and parr the script down to only 15 minutes!
I first saw the posting on Facebook and I felt the urge to take this opportunity to create something new out of something that I hold dear. I scrambled with the help of my ever steadfast editors to create something wonderful to send in for the festival. Shout out to Kayla V. White, Luke McLoughlin, Chris Richardson of Vigilante Reads, Sean Grady, and Sarah Kritzman for your help!
The first version took out much of the scenes that happened outside the car. One struggle I had is that this lessened the impact of the character Gabe to whom the original play is dedicated. It was a tough choice but I had to take out almost 35 minutes of content to meet the submission guidelines. A new ending was even created! The result was a crisp, clean, and crazy ride through the adventure of Jack and a 20 hour car ride.
The new play was accepted into the festival, cast, and currently is being rehearsed under the tutelage of director Joey Lubelfeld. Joey and I met in high school and first worked together for another short play festival, the student written one acts. Since then Joey had gone on to study Directing at Columbia College in Chicago and direct numerous shows. It's exciting to reconnect and get a new perspective on the show.
The show this time around will be heavily dance / movement inspired. I have always wanted the show to be a moving and flowing entity but never went quite as far as I had dreamed we could. I am excited to see what we collectively come up with and.I am stoked to be producing a new take on the show.
Please do come see the show if you are interested:
Thanks for listening!
Aaron Harris Woodstein