perchance to dream

you might not know this about me, but I actually performed Shakespeare, as an actor, in German. for two nights I stood in for a sick actress to play Lady Capulet in Romeo and Juliet. not only that, but I brought life to the role of Mrs Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor in a german dialect called plattdeutsch. I did it phonetically and didn't understand much of what I was saying but I memorized every dang line. we traveled around with it. people laughed, not because of my lack of conveyance, but because we were genuinely funny. and every night before I went out on stage I asked myself this question:


"what in the fuck are you doing?"


there are times, however, when you just do shit. like someone asks you to be in a play and you haven't been in one in ages so you say yes cause you're desperate to act, then you get the script and you find out that the play is in a language you don't speak or understand.


but you just do shit. because it's a challenge. and then you do it and it was fun and a great experience and you don't regret a thing.


that's kind of how I feel right now. I get asked to write a script, I haven't written one in a long time, so I say yes because I am desperate to write, then I get the book from which I am to write said script and find out it's in a language I don't speak and one I don't understand.


I didn't finish high school. which I am now reminded of on a daily basis since being back here because people are constantly asking me when I graduated and I keep having to tell them, "if I HAD graduated, then it would have been in '79." but the truth, is I didn't go to school regularly after the 9th grade and, to be honest, I didn't think I would amount to much in the academic world, nor did I try.


ok, granted the name if the book is called This Ain't Harvard, it's still on an intellectual level someplace far beyond my experience. yet I am attempting to write a script that will move the hearts of its readers/viewers as well as strike enough of a dose of awe in them so that they actually want to make it into a movie. 


rule #1 in writing: write what you know. I am breaking that rule. I don't like breaking rules because I don't like getting yelled at or scolded. so this is a challenge.


I am doing it, though. I am doing it instinctually rather than phonetically and I am having fun. it is, so far, a great experience, and I am confident that I won't regret a thing. 


or at the very least, be nominated for an Academy Award.