One of the joys – and occasional banes – of writing a regular column is that it engages you with your readers. A recent column beginning with Frank McCourt’s advice to would-be writers caught the eye of many.
In it I described a method I personally employ to get a writing project started. One piece of advice I neglected - never write about something you’re not totally invested in, for you will spend a long time in its company.
It took over ten years to get Hard Times/Paradise Square from the Cell Theatre on 23rd Street to Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre on 47th.
The pandemic interfered, of course, but during that year of “silence, exile, and cunning”, I conceived two other projects, which means I’ve already put years of work into both.
However, in this merry month of March, each will have a showing when I, and an audience, will be able to judge their progress.
I had always wanted to write a 2-person musical – the better to really delve into the characters, for as was stated in the McCourt column, “from character comes story.”
I had a vague idea of the plot which would center on a romantically involved couple who break up and are thrown together years later. Can they overcome time and change, and rediscover love?
As I began to take notes soon after the lockdown in March 2020, I still had no idea of the setting, but on that first day the face of an old friend surfaced - Ric Ocasek of The Cars.
He had died some months earlier, alone in his mansion near Gramercy Park. We had co-produced Black 47’s album, Fire of Freedom, and became close during long talks about bands, the Punk/New Wave scene, and the nearby East Village.
While remembering Ric, my own life in the 70’s and 80’s NYC music scene came back in a rush. And suddenly, I had my setting – my old apartment on seedy East 3rd Street, overlooking a pristine urban garden.
It was then easy to place the two characters in a New Wave band of that era, to pinpoint the turbulence that both cast them apart and eventually reunite them 20 years later.
I had lived that life, and almost instantly shards of songs came to mind, about what it was like to be a rock musician - not in the usual dumbed down, treacly Hollywood or MTV portrayal - but in the real life drama of trying to “make it” on the drug-infested streets of the Lower East Side.
It’s called All The Rage and will receive a staged performance reading on March 12th in the 28th Street Theatre, NYC.
Some months into the pandemic, Bobby Moresco, the Academy Award winning writer of the movie Crash, got in touch, wondering if I was familiar with Liam O’Flaherty’s novel, The Informer.
Was I what? I’d seen John Ford’s movie 3 times while still a boy back in Wexford. Bobby wondered if I’d be interested in writing a stage version.
I re-read O’Flaherty’s dark novel in a feverish weekend. I had a long-standing ambition to write a drama about the Irish Civil War, and wondered if Gypo Nolan’s betrayal could be re-oriented in that direction.
As it turned out, it took a re-imagining to adapt the story without creating an anodyne period piece. For, to keep the spirit of O’Flaherty’s book relevant, you can’t ignore the 50 years of more recent Troubles.
But I also had another ambition – to gather together a cast of New York’s finest Irish-born actors and harness their distinctive voices and talents to bring a new, large ensemble piece to life.
We did that in 20 minute increments by Zoom, all through the pandemic, courtesy of Bobby Moresco’s weekly online Actors Gym. And what a cast and director we had!
We’ll see the results on March 23rd when The Informer will receive a staged reading at the opening of the 1st Irish Festival at the American Irish Historical Society courtesy of new president, Elizabeth Stack, and Michael Mellamphy of Origin Theatre Company.
It will take even more time to get first class productions of these projects on the boards. That’s the nature of the game, just make sure when you begin your project your story is worth living with.
Tickets for All The Rage, March 12, 28th Street Theatre, 15 W. 28th St. NYC bit.ly/ATR-TIX
Tickets for The Informer, March 23, at AIHS, 991 5th Ave. NYC www.origintheatre.org
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