Well, since I have been with Nosedive, I can say I have been producing both creatively and financially for the last 5 years. However, now with a little help from my friends, I am starting a journey to self-producing my short length piece in Fight Fest and on to a full length as well in the next couple of years.
Awhile back, I was whining. (Not a good Cabernet or Pinot Nior.) Really crappy whining. I wasn't feeling as creative or really owning anything creative I was doing in the theater-sphere. And, my jonesing for acting and/or directing was hitting an all new high. I had gone a year without going onstage for anything. Now, I know this happens a lot. Creative ruts and all. But, instead of everyone telling me to grin and bear it and it will come to pass, people said - why don't you just make something of your own.
I was finishing up reading "World War Z" and thought how cool it would be to put this on stage. I started going through the book, writing down what I would want in, what could be spliced together. What would the locations be and how to accomplish that.
A few months later, a friend of mine told me that the book was becoming a movie. My heart sunk. And, I pretty much gave up.
One night after "Blood Brother's Present...Master of Horror", I was having a drink with the lovely and talented Sara Thigpen. We were talking about the show when she asked a very poignient question - so Stephanie, what are you doing next. I started to talk about Nosedive things and she said again, what about you. I began to talk to her about my aspirations and then about my idea for making this zombie book into a play, but that wouldn't work because it is going to be a movie. She then said - why don't you keep the zombie idea and just make up something different.
I then told Pete about it who agreed with Sarah's thinking completely. I told him about my ideas about using a character I had come up with a while back that I thought would be better for a comic book, but it made sense here too. He thought it sounded great and that I should work on that.
So, for the next few months, I began to start thinking about this show. One day while walking from the train to a friend's house, the song, "Come Alive" by the Foo Fighters came on my IPod and a whole scene began to play in my head. I realized this was the scene where our heroine gets up and fights and in a sense, is created. I listened to that song on repeat, all the way home on the train and figured out how the whole scene would work.
Then, a festival was announced - Fight Fest, at the Brick. I realized, if I could get in this, then I could show this scene and see if it worked, talk more about my idea, see if there are any writers out there that would like to help me out. See if anyone was interested in helping produce this. Etc., Etc. I decided to enter. This also forced me to really start writing it out. Instead of letting it just rattle around in my head any longer.
I wrote it out and sent it to Pete, Patrick, Ben and James who all gave their 2 cents. And, a big thanks to them because I don't know if I would have entered at all if it weren't for them. I say I am "self-producing" this. However, I know that these guys are always close around to help out when necessary.
I am now 2 weeks out from the performance. And I am excited to see what will be happening next.
More on that in another post.
