London Calling

This post is more than just an opportunity to invoke one of the best-known songs by The Clash.

I have a truly dramatic announcement.

To wit, my one-act play "Dig" will be getting its first fully mounted professional production in London, with a scheduled opening night some time in the spring. First published in Rockhurst Review in 1997, "Dig" will be produced thanks to the efforts of Curving Road, a nonprofit registered in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Much of their work involves launching the artistic careers of disadvantaged youth who might not have access to valuable training and connections. In case you wonder about the name, more information is available here.

In this instance, Curving Road placed a call for one-act play submissions from writers over the age of 40 who had never had a play professionally produced. After the inevitable period of waiting that follows any submission, I have learned that my play, along with "Nearly Man" by Scottish playwright Michael Hart, will make up the program.

The Curving Road web site summarizes my play as follows:

" 'Dig' explores through dark humour the power struggle between prey and victim, centering on the dialogue between an executioner and a victim who refuses to dig his own grave."

As you have no doubt already surmised, this is not for children.

Now a whole new sequence of events begins. I am willing to call it a new stage of my education.
I hope to take the lessons learned from this production to the plays I plan to write in the years ahead.

At the moment I have ideas for at least two full-length plays.

New Lists on Top Hat Tap Dance

The list may represent America's unique contribution to humor, and many of us know it best from David Letterman's Top Ten List.

I've recently had a few lists of my own published on the site Top Hat Tap Dance, the creation of Austin, Texas writer and photographer Kristin Hillery, whose work has, like my own, appeared on Yankee Pot Roast.

My lists (or, as some of the kids call them these days, "listicles") appear on the following dates:

October 8

September 22

September 15

September 14

and September 14

(September 14 was a busy day).

I will soon put together another set of previously published humor links, including both lists and longer articles, but the links above can be considered an appetizer.