Valentino on Facebook

To promote the Hollywood Fringe Festival staging of my play, I've set up a Facebook page for Valentino: a play in verse.

Become a fan!

Valentino Gets a Project Page on the Hollywood Fringe Festival Website

The Hollywood Fringe Festival has approved Valentino for inclusion on their festival website. You can see my project page here: Valentino: a play in verse.

The next step is to find and secure a performance venue. Several Hollywood theaters have already joined the Hollywood Fringe Festival. No doubt more venues will be joining in the months ahead. I think Valentino would work best in a traditional 99-seat theater, but other venues are certainly possible. I've acted in Shakespeare in the Park productions, and Valentino could do well in a similar outdoor setting. We'll see what develops.

The deadline to secure a venue and pay the festival fee is April 1, 2010. I need to start checking out spaces and raising funds.

Valentino at the Hollywood Fringe Festival

I've decided to stage Valentino: a play in verse at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The festival runs June 17-27, 2010.

To date, the play has been workshopped at the College of the Canyons, received a public reading at the Valencia library, and been published through Lulu. I have also performed monologues from the play at a College of the Canyons actor's showcase.

The next step is to mount a production. I'll be posting updates about the show here.

Doollee Noted

I just noticed that I now have a profile on doollee.com, "The Playwright's Database." It lists both Valentino: a play in verse and Francesca: a play in verse.

I don't know who submitted the info, but that's pretty cool. I'm guessing that they were tipped off by my profile on The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights.

Check it out: doollee.com

Valentino Monologue at Master Class Showcase

Thursday night I performed a monologue from Valentino in the Black Box Theatre at the College of the Canyons. It was a lot of fun, and I got some nice compliments.

Here's the monologue.

VALENTINO:
                                                 His mind
Was made for battle, bloody rendezvous.
He worked on war machines of every kind.
He fought Marcellus, saving Syracuse
With lever, fulcrum, pulleys. If I find
One man like that — by God, I’ll never lose.
In you I see the spark of Archimedes.
If you design the tricks, they’ll sign the treaties.
The Greeks relied on rocks and spears and arrows
Till Archimedes built machines for war.
He knew the ancient secrets of the Pharaohs,
Plus many things no man had known before.
When fifteen thousand Romans sailed the narrows,
A fleet of sixty war ships came to shore.
The Greeks were just about to call it quits,
But Archimedes always kept his wits.
With massive mirrors focused on the sails,
He cursed the Romans, burst them into flame.
The blazing waters filled with cries and wails.
He kept them churning, burning. Still they came.
With mighty catapults he sent them hails
Of heavy stones, to maim their men and claim
Their bones. The battle raged until they saw
The terror of the Archimedes Claw —
An iron hand, suspended from a tower,
To hook their hulls and lift their ships away,
Then smash them down with God-like power,
All roiling, toiling, boiling in the bay.
Now doomed and damned, they found their final hour
As sunset met the dying of the day.
When Archimedes saw that bloody swell,
He knew he was the architect of hell.
Surviving Romans cowered in disgrace.
As Archimedes laughed, dead bodies swirled.
He stood above the battlements to face
His fallen enemies with flags unfurled,
And shouted to the wind, “Give me a place
To stand and, by God, I will move the world!”
Which illustrates the power of the lever.
And you, my friend, are equally as clever.
You are my General of Engineering.
Come, ride beside me on my noble quest,
And through the centuries they’ll be revering
Your name — Leonardo da Vinci! Best
War engineer since Archimedes! Cheering
Your genius, which will now be manifest.
When under fire and standing at the brink,
Then wonder, “What would Archimedes think?”
It’s not the force, but where applied, and when.
Some men believe raw numbers turn the tide.
I’d rather have the odds against us, ten
To one, if you’re the one man at my side.
The greatest wars are won by brilliant men,
And you will be my weapon, multiplied.
I love my Spanish sword, and all men praise her,
But nothing holds an edge like Ockham’s Razor.

Shakespeare in the Park

I'm playing Baptista Minola in The Taming of the Shrew.

New Works Festival 2008

I submitted three plays to the College of the Canyons New Works Festival, which was last year's venue for Valentino.

Two of my plays were accepted.

Sadly, Francesca: a play in verse did not make the cut. It's still a work in progress, and I only submitted Scene One, so maybe next year.

My two plays that were accepted are: Endgame and U.N. I'm looking forward to seeing them staged May 21-24, 2008.

Two out of three ain't bad.