I hope you will join me, Virginia Wolf, and director Scott Stephen Kegler for my 5th Annual "PLAY WITH JACQUES" new play reading at the Unitarian Society of Hartford.  PIERCE, BORN FAT, THE BINDER (with THE BUMP), and HONEY LABREA - THE LONELY THETAN all had their first readings at this warm, accommodating space.  

SAT, APRIL 16 at 7:30, right after I finish working at The Mark Twain House & Museum, I will run across the West End of Hartford for the first reading of my newest play, BETTY JO'S FAN CLUB.  This is an idea I have had for at least five years before I finally sat down to write it at the beginning of this year.  I have always been obsessed by the idea of cults.  I don't want to join one, but I would love to live near one and spy through the bushes.  I started mulling over the idea of what would happen if an under-appreciated woman decided to start a fan club for herself by posting on a supermarket bulletin board.  I didn't imagine at the time that my interest in cults would collide with this lady from Hamden, but it did.  I think the play is twisted in the best ways and has ended up being an odd reflection on the Trump candidacy.  I hope you will join me.  There will be cake and a free will offering!  Betty Jo no longer believes in free will, but encourages you to come see her.  Her fan club needs new members.

Aside from all of the nuttiness of this year's Presidential race, 2016 has been a flat-out weird year for me.  I started out in January by writing the first draft of THE RAGING SKILLET (which will open in Spring 2017 at my artistic home, TheaterWorks Hartford) and finishing BETTY JO'S FAN CLUB (an idea that I had been kicking around for years and finally wrote for an actress who ended up not wanting to do it).  I've done two more drafts of the book for the musical SAVE THE ROBOTS and saw an extreme musical makeover to my book for FLY ME TO MIAMI (now called HAVANA U$A).  Other than that, I've been a bit moribund as I have mulled over what to do career-wise.   These were all projects I had to do.  Other than that, I wasn't very motivated to write.  

After seven years at The Mark Twain House & Museum, I am leaving next week and starting a new job at BuzzEngine in West Hartford.  Quitting my job was like uncorking my creativity.  I wrote two short plays in short order, both for my annual submission for the Fusion Theatre "The Seven:" SOILED and THE LOVE GOITER with local genius Stephen Scott Kegler.  I have actually started going to theatre again, too.  Maybe I had to break up with Mark Twain to become more of my own writer.