Writing a play - under deadline!

Stefanik beats drum on Biden impeachment despite source of evidence

The last time I was on the stage I was in the fourth grade. And it really wasn't a stage.

It was Mrs. Fasciano's fourth grade classroom at Larkin School in Ansonia, Conn. and we were doing A Christmas Carol. I was Bob Cractchit. It was an evening performance without costumes, or stage and we just read our lines from the script in front of the classroom.

It was nothing like what the schools do today.

My mom said I was very good.

This weekend, the Wood Theater is holding "24-Hour Playfest."

The concept is simple and maybe a little frightening if you are participating.

In recent months, the Wood Theater has asked for volunteer writers, directors and actors to come together this weekend. Eight different teams will be formed consisting of a writer, director and three to four actors.

They will meet Friday evening at 8 p.m. and over the next 24 hours, these strangers will write, stage and memorize the lines for eight 10-minute plays to be performed for the public Saturday night at the Wood.

But here is the wild card. There is no way to prepare. The theme for the 10-minute play won't be announced until Friday at 8 p.m. Teams will then meet for an hour before the writers go home to write the script.

They've got eight hours to create a masterpiece, or at the very least something that won't embarrass anyone, before submitting the script by 5 a.m. to their team.

There does not seem to be any off ramps for writer's block.

This is a hard deadline.

Beginning Saturday morning, the teams come together to rehearse, memorize and stage the plays.

It sounds a little bit like Saturday Night Live on steroids.

There was no mention if the writers get time to sleep.

That's a concern because I am going to be one of the writers. When I volunteered for the show, they asked for my writing credentials and a sample of my writing.

I mentioned I had over 40 years of writing experience at daily newspapers and had recently adapted my book The Last American Newspaper into a play.

It was one of the reasons I volunteered for the 24-hour Playfest. I figured if I was going to get into the theater business, I should see what it takes to put on a real play - even if it is only 10 minutes long.

After staring down deadlines covering evening sports events for 20 years, the eight-hour deadline does not bother me, although I'm thinking I may want to take a nap Friday afternoon.

Over the years, I got pretty good at delivering a 700-word essay on a playoff hockey game in 20 or 30 minutes. And that's with lots of distractions.

I'm not worried about the deadline.

Maybe, a little bit about the writing. When you are thinking about writing a column, you might think about it off and on for several days. There is no opportunity to do that with Playfest.

I also have a bit of a conflict.

The unbeaten Glens Falls basketball team that I've been following all season is scheduled to play for the Section II championship Saturday afternoon. Does the writer have to be all all the rehearsals?

I don't know, I'm a novice.

I'm hoping a 90-minute lunch break will be in order about the time the Glens Falls game starts.

After all, it's not like I have to memorize any lines. I just have to invent them.

What I've heard about theater from the playwright's perspective is that it is extremely collaborative with the writer, director and actors all being part of the process, all part of fine-tuning the final performance with lines being re-written right up until curtain on opening night.

Apparently, no matter how well something is written, it often doesn't translate when it is spoken on stage.

That is also kind of scary.

But it also might be the fun part.

Writing can be a solitary endeavor, especially when you do it for a newspaper or a Substack column like this.

You choose your words carefully.

You try to convey the message, the emotion with your words.

It will be nice to have some help with that.

Stefanik won't let go

Rep. Elise Stefanik continues to be giddy about the FBI informant who accused President Biden of receiving $5 million in bribes for a Ukrainian energy company.

This is the root of the "Biden Crime Family" accusations.

On Wednesday, as Hunter Biden was preparing to testify behind closed doors in Congress, Stefanik continued her attack despite recent revelations that the FBI informant who had implicated President Biden and his son Hunter had been fed the information from Russian intelligence.

Stefanik posted this on social media:

Today as part of the @HouseGOP’s impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden, Hunter Biden will be deposed.

For months @GOPoversight Chair @RepJamesComer, @JudiciaryGOP Chair @Jim_Jordan, & @WaysandMeansGOP Chair @RepJasonSmith have conducted a rigorous investigation into Joe Biden and his family's influence peddling scheme.

This thread highlights the damning evidence uncovered by our investigation showing Joe Biden’s knowledge of, participation in, and benefit from his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes.

Heather Cox Richardson wrote this on her Substack column Thursday:

Hunter Biden began the day with a scathing statement saying unequivocally that he had never involved his father in his business dealings and that all the evidence the committee had compiled proved that. In their “partisan political pursuit,” he said, they had “trafficked in innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism—all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face. You do not have evidence to support the baseless and MAGA-motivated conspiracies about my father because there isn’t any.” 

Democrats said that the case against Hunter Biden had fallen apart.

Republicans insisted Hunter Biden was lying.

There was no mention by Stefanik of the FBI informant accused of lying.

Glens Falls in final

For one of the few times this year, the Glens Falls' boys basketball team was losing at halftime Wednesday.

Thanks to Cooper Nadler, Glens Falls rallied with a big third quarter to take control of the game and beat Lansingburgh by six.

Glens Falls plays Catholic Central for the Section II championship Saturday at Cool Insuring Arena at 12:45 p.m.

It is a rematch of last year's title game which Catholic Central won.