Monthly Archive for April, 2003

I’ve been informed that a discussion took place last night about why I continue to expend “negative energy” towards Cumberland Players, the theater company I was associated with for ten years, instead of now focusing all my “positive energy” towards the Holly City Repertory Theater, which I have been working with for a little while now, and where I am currently directing my current show.

First, I have never stopped focusing energy on CP because, quite frankly, I was there for so long. It had served as one of my major creative outlets for such a long time that I find it very hard to turn my back on it. I still care about what happens there; I don’t want to see it damaged beyond repair. And with reports of more people being “squeezed out” in recent weeks and internal strife I really think it could happen. They’re experiencing a major talent drain that could take years to recover from. And it concerns me. All one needs to do is look at the number of people who bill themselves as “CP Throwaways” to be seriously concerned.

Someone also suggested that I’ve felt “betrayed” by CP. Yes, to a degree, I do, but not for the reasons that person thinks I feel that way, and I don’t feel betrayed by the people that person thinks betrayed me. I won’t go into more depth because some of those people might happen to read this entry.

As for the HCRT, I have my concerns. I don’t know the reasons why, but it looks like that group just can’t get off the ground. Brett, Stephanie, Amanda, Kim, and everyone else have worked very hard, and by all rights, it should be a success, but it isn’t. Their attendance is minimal. Even their best-atttended performances are half empty. They can’t attract a large talent pool (not that they don’t have talented people now, but there aren’t many; the number of times they’ve had to cancel shows because of lack of auditioners speaks volumes). Brett can’t let go of his dream of operating a professional theater company, but I don’t see it happening here. We’re amateurs. All of us. Even the best of our company are amateurs, albeit ones with the potential to go farther. I’m not ashamed to admit that I’m an amateur, and not even the best amateur. And it can be counter-productive to denigrate amateur theater and “community theater” when that is, essentially, what you are. Community theater is not a bad word! Just because it’s a bunch of amateurs doing it doesn’t automatically make it bad. Sure, it’s not Broadway, but nowadays even BROADWAY isn’t “Broadway.”

Another problem is that Brett keeps mentioning his desire to do original material to (1) help carve a niche which, honestly, the theater needs, and (2) to save money. Maybe it’s my paranoia again, but it almost seems like he’s saying it to goad me into writing again. I’ve had three plays I’ve been in the process of writing for years now, and he knows it. Two of them would be right up his and my alley at HCRT if I ever finished them. But I can’t write now. My life is not conducive to writing. Between fighting First Union and trying to dig the movie theater out of the hole, I’m so stressed I can’t sleep at nights. I can’t focus. During these times I used to be able to take off for Avalon for a few days, “de-pressurize,” and write. But I don’t have any place like that I can go to any more. If you read the first draft of my finished novel, you can tell at which points I lost Avalon, then left WOND the first time, then started at WVLT. The thing becomes more and more unfocused. Now I have three plays plotted out in my head, and in one case quite a bit of dialogue written for it in my head, but I can’t focus enough to get it onto paper. And the concepts for novels, screenplays, and novels keep assaulting me. It is a curse to have all these ideas, and not be able to bring them to fruition, and I feel really pressured by too many people to churn out something, anything. I can’t! And if I force myself, it’s going to be crap. I can’t stand to read anything I’ve written in the past three years for just that reason. I can’t focus enough to make anything good, and I don’t feel like churning out more crap.

I just needed to vent. Sorry to anyone who actually read this. Both of you.

Last night, we drove what I hope will be the final nail in the coffin of the Hogbach development on my family’s land in East Vineland. A much more succinct (and accurate for being second-hand) account of the events at the City Council meeting can be found in Bryan’s Journal so I won’t repeat it all here. So, unless Richard Milstead had a complete, fullt compliant site plan done tonight (which I doubt he did), the development is never going to go through.

It feels good, after 12 years on the periphery of politics, and brief active stints, to be on the winning team.

The next windmill to tilt at, however, was handed to me last night by Council President Ruben Bermudez. He asked me what can, and should be done with the Landis Theater. Once the pride of town, this little cinema with its art deco facade, has been vacant since 1989 and deteriorating. A group of citizens “banded together” to “save” the theater, but have had no luck for a variety of reasons which I’d rather not go into at this juncture. So, now we have this magnificent building sitting there going to waste.

This morning I think I hit upon the answer. (Why do all my good ideas come in the shower?) I’ll hold back the details since I have to polish some things up on it and a few people I’d like to get in my corner first, but I think I’ve got a good plan. I’ll keep you all apprised.

Of course, this means that my current foray into politics is not going to end any time soon. My name is appearing on a ballot for the first time in 11 years in June, as I actually stand for the Democratic Committee seat I won through a single write-in vote two years ago. Now I’m going to be trumpeting a new cause and staying in the spotlight. I may have to re-enter the fray properly next year. Who knows?

We’re trying to build a network between the computers at the movie theater. I’d managed to cobble together just about everything we needed either second hand or from things I had on hand, including the CAT 5E cable. Jarvis and Chris Ferrara helped with running the cable through the ceilings and walls (after I was unsuccessful at my rafter crawling activities) Well, the network card in the box office was old and pretty much shot in a modern network context, so I pulled it and replaced with with a $19.99 Linksys 100someletterorother card from Radio Shack.

The box bragged that the card’s minimum requirements were a 200MHz computer ruinning Win9x/ME/XP. That’s it. Nothing less. The box office computer is (prepare yourselves) a 486 with 8Mb of RAM running MSDOS 6.22 and Microsoft Network Client 3.0.

Stop laughing.

So, I barged ahead, dropped in the card (plug and play nonetheless) into the dual ISA/PCI slot in the ancient motherboard (actually daughterboard!) and booted up. On a whim, unable to find drivers online, I decided to check out the CD-ROM that came packed with the card.

Wonder of wonders: in addition to the Win9x and NT/XP folders, there were a slew of others. Of course, you need to explore deep to find them, but lo and behold, there were the NDIS DOS drivers for this card! Plus, drivers for Linux, MSLanMan, Novell Netware, and even my beloved lamented OS/2!

Bravo Linksys for supporting EVERYTHING! And boo for not plugging that on the box!