Late and Great

Hey guys,

I know it's late but this is what happens when you work in hospitality and have messed up sleeping patterns.

Anyhow, I had a quick read over the feedback The Boss sent me and for the first time there was not one, but two sections where she actually wrote 'Good'. One even had a smiley face.

It's nuts to think that this little word can have such an impact but it did, does, and makes me want to write better.

And this was the two-chapter draft. She hasn't shot feedback through for the three chapter version, except to say the concepts are clearer and the writing is improving.

Note to self: go with my gut.

Larissa said to check out Margaret Morse and a couple of other things, but Morse stuck.

Why? Because Morse leads into haptic interfaces, which in my extensive excess writing (stuff that didn't make the cut) is all over the place, citing theatre as a physical medium that is a clear precursor/inter-influence on haptic media.

I'm tired, hungover, hungry and a little drunk, but more excited than anything, because my gut told me to do the haptic thing and I'm going to chase it down.

The other thing my gut told me about was adaptation. By this I mean that theatre is a medium where a script is just the bones and a play can be made in any way at any time, which makes it like new media in that editing can be done on the fly and there is no 'right' way to do anything. I was calling it 'concrete' vs 'fluid' in my head, where concrete media is made solid and not subject to change (photo, painting, film [especially] and TV) and fluid can be made anew as necessary (theatre and new media - not all new media but a large majority).

Theatre, immersive theatre in particlar is like a game engine. There is a skeleton, but each experience is different. Another thread, but a great one to chase down, possibly at a later date.

Anyway, the adaptation thing (making any number of shows from a base script) also lets me link Eckersall (one of my thesis markers) into the mix, which then ties into the rest of the piece.

Where once I was worried about not being able to generate enough content, now I'm concerned that I might end up with too much, but that's what the Boss is for - to tell me when I'm good and tell me when I'm not. I'm starting to think that I might actually finish around 15000, which may be to my benefit all things told.

I want to write something compelling, but it also needs to be entertaining, otherwise it isn't me at all.

The late great thing is not just linked to the time of the post and the feedback, but because all of this got me thinking about 2010, a year when I did a show, wrote my own version of it and saw a different version that same year. It was the Shakespeare classic of Midsummer Night's Dream, and the director was none other than the late, great Peter Oyston. A director, a mentor and a friend, Peter founded the VCA as well as the Circus Oz. It's great to see I'm at RMIT where the Oz archive is a huge thing, but also work with VCA and do my own thing, much of it influenced by Peter. Plus I used to hang out with a 72 year old that was more childish than myself, but with a way nicer house.

To Lateness, To Greatness and Peter.