Conference Report
Last Frontier Playwrights
Conference in Valdez, Alaska, 2005
By G. L. Horton
copyright © 2005
Geralyn Horton
After an exhausting two weeks of the Last Frontier Playwrights
Conference in Valdez, Alaska, I returned home to take over my
daughter's Pet Care business while she was on vacation--- so I'm
catching up on sleep. My "The 11:08 Brighton: the Oldest
Established Permanant Rolling Cast Party" went very well
in Valdez, and I've now finished minor
tweakings of the script based on the feedback I got at the
reading. What a high it is to have work greeted with enthusiasm!
I'm forming a theory that praise is directly proportional to the
distance you have to travel from home to garner it.
Backstage did a write-up on the LFPC. The part that made my day
goes "... many attendees commented that the caliber of the
writing was uniformly higher than in previous years. Among the
standout works were Mary Roseanne Katzke's 'Dancing for the Hunter,'
Atar Hadari's 'The Lonesome Death of Janis Joplin,' Geralyn Horton's
'The 11:08 Brighton From London/Victoria,' Jennifer Williams'
'Edge,' ..." Read the entire Backstage
article on the Last Frontier Playwright Conference.
Playwright Jason Grote has written up the conference on his blog.
His comments are extensive enough that I don't feel I have to
write it up myself. Read
Jason Grote's comments on the Last Frontier Playwrights Conference
in Valdez, Alaska.
A diary-like account of our Alaska adventures was recorded by
Dan
Trujillo on his blog. Dan gallantly and generously drove me
and PP member Jonathan Myers and Meron Langner of NYC (but earlier
of B.U.) from Anchorage to Valdez and back again, an all-day excursion
each way, and he has recorded our progress -- with pictures--
in his blog entries dated June 17th-30th. Sean Bennet was at one
point rumored to be the 4th passenger, but he flew in instead
I believe-- anyway, he was on site when I arrived, and already
checking out his actors for "Fall-Out"!
I took notes at all the LFTC panels and workshops with the experts
that I attended, and I'd be happy to share these with whomever
isinterested. That workshop I had the most fun in went note-less--
it was two 2 hour Movement classes, Spolin/Stills style, and I
had such a blast! I used to teach these, but I hardly ever get
to do them myself-- once you get to be an actor of a certain age,
directors seem to assume you don't want or need a body/mind workout
any more.
I was sorry to miss "A
Late Lunch" and "One
Fiery Leaf" and the rest of the PP gang's work at the
TCAN Festival. My husband went and attempted a video so that I
could see it, but the lighting and camera limitations produced
mostly mud and static. He says the plays went very well.... but
if anyone who saw TCAN could offer a more detailed description,
I'd be grateful!
See also G.L. Horton's commentary based on Kate
Snodgrass's Workshop on Writing Subtext.
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