GULLIVER.CC

Lots going on, as usual. In addition to teaching four classes jam-packed with most excellent students and raising a teenager, I'm also writing video scripts about academic ethics (we're in favor of them), writing the script for a children's touring show about Robin Hood, and directing my new script CROSSING LINES for Black History Month at Vulcan Park and Museum. In my spare time I'm still chipping away at my historical drama about New Orleans in the early 19th century.

So glad to have an agent again. I've signed with Whitt Brantley Management and Talent: A Literary, Film and Television Agency for representation of my notorious vampires-in-space screenplay POWERS OF DARKNESS, and future projects based on HOLMES & WATSON. Thank you, Mr. Brantley, for taking me on -- here's hoping this will do us both a lot of good...

Naturally I'm very happy about there being two productions of HOLMES & WATSON practically back-to-back -- one in December 2009 with the Full Circle Theater Company in Shepherdstown, WV -- and then one in April 2010 with the Auburn Players in upstate NY. The Auburn show will be directed by my friend Bill White, whose work I greatly admire. It's always a comfort to know your work is in good hands...

Meanwhile, Theatre UAB's production of my adaptation of Mark Twain's THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER is back out on tour! This is in conjunction with the national BIG READ program, which encourages readers all over the place to read the same book at some point during the season. For 2010 Alabama has chosen TOM SAWYER as its book and I couldn't be happier. Some schools and libraries are getting rights to perform the show themselves, while others are simply booking the UAB touring company at their venue. In fact, the tour is booked solid: every Friday this spring they'll be doing the show in at least one school or library, usually two or even three! I like to think that somewhere Mr. Clemens is smiling...

In September 2009 we presented yet another Theatre UAB Festival of Ten-Minute Plays and once again the audiences pronounced them to be a success. In fact, many people said this was the best-ever, which either means we've outdone all our previous work, or that people have very short memories. Frankly, I'm happy either way...

This is not exactly a project, but it does explain why I haven't been doing more writing or producing recently! This summer my Dad and I both had separate brushes with death -- his due to a car accident in which he was rammed by a truck driven by someone who wasn't watching the road, and mine due to a ruptured appendix which was misdiagnosed long enough for me to get poisoned. After the worst summer ever, Dad and I are both doing well. As you might imagine we both have a new appreciation for being alive. An added bonus for me: I'd been working toward a goal of losing about 20 pounds this year -- and ended up losing 30 pounds in the month of July. Not the way one wishes to do it, but still...

It seems like I'm averaging a new play production every year, so I guess the New Play for 2009 has been "Too Many Questions," a one-woman show I wrote about Virginia Foster Durr. This was a commission from Vulcan Park and Museum, and in performance stars the peerless Ginny Loggins. It's been a big hit with the audiences -- which have included Mrs. Durr's oldest daughter! No pressure there!

Virginia Durr was an amazing woman and it is great fun to pretend like you're spending an hour with her at her home, listening to her tell about her extraordinary experiences as a white Southerner who dared to stand on the "colored" side of the civil rights struggle in the 1960s. Each time we've done this show, Ginny and I have both been regaled with personal stories about various people's encounters with Mrs. Durr. I wish I had known her...

When our radio drama serial BODYLOVE's initial run ended two years ago, I figured it would simply recede into the past. turns out nothing could be further from the truth! Media for Health is now marketing BODYLOVE episodes 1-80 with a new logo and slick new packaging. The series comes as four gorgeous boxes, each of which contains 20 episodes in glorious full stereo on high-quality CDs. Available NOW via www.bodylove.org ...

And we keep on getting good press online. The Media Materials Clearinghouse -- an international resource for health communication materials of all kinds -- has done a feature story about the show, and the show is also currently featured on the Medical News Today site ...

And then there's that other radio-drama series! Last summer I co-wrote the first 40 episodes of a new radio drama, ably partnered with the very gifted Alex LaFosta, whose name you're going to be hearing more of in the future. Those episodes have now been recorded and mixed and are back in the hands of the client -- so we're waiting to learn when and where the show will be heard. Meanwhile I'm still hoping to sneak a few bits and pieces onto GULLIVER.CC as well...