Mused, the literary magazine of the Bella Online site, has a new issue up today which includes my very short play (one might say sketch) entitled "Book" which is a comedy. I found it helpful to add that label after a couple of rejections. A sense of humor is not always a portable currency. I noticed again during Burn After Reading that many people need to be cued that it's all right to laugh. I can't help it. Even at the worst of times (perhaps especially at the worst of times) I can laugh easily (and often inappropriately -- odd things strike me as funny, I have to admit).The play deals with that sense of unease, the way many people feel hesitant to claim authority when it comes to judging literary worth. As always, check out the rest of the issue which includes an interview with Berkshire artist and star of Indiana Jones movies, Karen Allen, as well as fiction, art and poetry. It's an honor to be one of the selected pieces for this quarter (and softens the rejection also received yesterday). You may recall that Mused also published my play, "Bell" (can you guess what the third piece will be called?).
2 comments:
Congratulations...I've published one playlet, decades back, and it's a fine form (I wonder if one, as Jack Sharkey did in the '60s and '70s, make a living writing mostly plays for the community theater market through Samuel French. Doubt it). The first time I remember my parents laughing at something I'd written was a fifth-grade playlet I was damned proud of. (It was, indeed, a comedy.)
I'm often the only person laughing in movie theaters...dunno if that makes me an Addams character or not, but it sure has embarrassed my companions from time to time. Also beats actually seeking out Brian De Palma et al. and being rude or worse. Sadder still when I might be the only one who gets that something IS a joke.
Oooh, yeah. I remember seeing Hot Fuzz with the Friday OAP crowd. I was busting a gut laughing at the chain of command sequence (the bit near the start where Officer Angel demands to see the next higher ranking officer to appeal) and the rest of the place was silent. Admittedly, you have to know the actors who were playing those officers, but -- eventually they warmed up to things and were laughing heartily by the end.
I saw Raising Arizona in Burbank (oh god) and laughed alone. But I laughed really really hard.
Your memory sparks one of my own: the first play I had performed as an adult, a friend told me later that he had lots of fun watching me watch the play (and say the words along with the cast). Comedy is hard, but there's no better feeling than making people laugh with what came out of your own little head.
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