Where’s Lloyd?

Hi. I’m Lloyd. Remember me? Today marks exactly one month since my last blog post. This was not by accident; it was by design. I purposely have backed off this past month to finish some writing projects. I’m attending the Midwest Writers Workshop in July and I’ve got some book proposals that are due July 1st. So, I’ve been hunkered down in my office and other creative spaces, working on putting the final touches of these two proposals. The two book proposals I’m working are:

• Bedtime Stories: This is a collection of short stories that are meant for consumption in a small amount of time. I’m thinking that for those of you who would like to read a short story before bed, these would be perfect. They are all 10-15 pages in length and cover a variety of topics. My desire is that these stories will provoke you to think differently and ultimately respond differently to certain situations. Some of these stories are sensitive in nature and yes, some have some explicit language. In these stories I want to be true to the characters and the situations and as such, I don’t want to water anything down. I want the emotions and reactions to be raw. And, of course, I always have loved stories/movies that have a surprise ending. So, be looking for that. I’ll be putting out a blog post this Sunday with a preview of one of those stories.
   
• The Steeplewood Chase: This is a novel that takes place in a retirement home named Steeplewood. Jack and Mary Steeplewood have been longtime residents of the retirement home that bears their name. When Mary passes away, Jack is left as the most eligible bachelor in Steeplewood, surrounded by dozens of women lusting over this former Marlboro Man who still has many years left in him. One-by-one, these seemingly nice widows sabotage each other’s efforts to get to Jack and become the next Mrs. Steeplewood. Think of this as “The Bachelor, Senior Edition”. Who will gain Jack’s affection? Who will become the next Mrs. Steeplewood? In the end, of course, there is a twist.

Another Mulligan

In addition to these, I have a play that’s being produced for the IndyFringe festival in August. The cast is set, the dates/times are set, and we had our first read-through with the cast this past week. I can’t tell you how excited I am to have this come to the stage! The play is called Another Mulligan, and it’s a story about second chances in life. What if life had do-overs? Would you do things differently? If you could magically wave a wand and erase a bad event from your life, would you? This is a comedy and based on our first reading, it’s going to hopefully get a lot of laughs. Running time should be around 45 minutes. Specific location details and tickets sale details are forthcoming and I’ll share those as soon as I can. Here is the artwork that is going into the IndyFringe program:

The dates/times for the play are as follows:

• Friday, Aug. 16 6:00 p.m. 
• Sunday, Aug. 18 7:30 p.m. 
• Tuesday, Aug. 20 9:00 p.m. 
• Thursday, Aug. 22 7:30 p.m. 
• Saturday, Aug. 24 4:30 p.m. 
• Sunday, Aug. 25 3:00 p.m.

All shows will start and end within an hour. I’m excited for you all to see it! The final cast is:

• Chuck – David Nidiffer
• Denise – Nikki Lynch
• Gabriella – Lori Lavalle
• Kaylee – Lauren Boughner
• Cassie – Kate Carpenter
• Sally – Dixie Oberlin
• Jim – Greg Showalter
• Dave – Steve Drye
• Susan – Molly Mohr
• Troy – Josh Gibson
• Joe – Tim Moore
• Director – Becca Bartley
• Writers – Lloyd Work, Rick Drumm, Wes Mathias

You’ll notice that I’m not actually in the play. This is by design as well. I want to be freed up to keep writing, so I purposely have left myself out of the day-to-day rehearsals etc. I’m not worried at all – these actors and actresses and director are top notch and very experienced. I can’t wait for you all to see it!

A Little History of Another Mulligan

Rick, Wes and I actually first met and discussed this story back in 2013. Rick and I had written a play called An American Christmas that was produced in 2004, and we had always wanted to do that again. Alas, life happened and we didn’t get around to it for almost a decade. We finished the original script – initially called “Another Christmas Mulligan” in 2015. At 61 pages, it was set for a length of 75 minutes or so. Last year, the acting troupe I’m part of produced a play for IndyFringe called Go Be Joan. This was written by Nate Adams, another member of our acting troupe. For those that missed last year’s show, you can still see it this year as it’s being produced here locally July 18-28. For more info, see this page: https://www.facebook.com/fatturtletheatre/

When it came time to figure out what to do for IndyFringe this year, I suggested we consider doing Another Mulligan and everyone agreed that was a good idea. The problem was the length – Fringe shows needed to be less than an hour. So, I went to work chopping and editing and got it down to 35 pages of script (down from 61). I think the result is going to be great and I’ve gotten feedback from other actors in the show that it feels much more tight than the original. There were a lot of laughs at the first read-through and I hope you can all enjoy a night of laughter when you come to see the show.

Another interesting tidbit about this show is that most of the situations presented in the play are based on real-life situations. We took things that had happened to us – or those close to us – and adapted those into scenes. The result is pure hilarity. Also – about the artwork. I created it using a program called Canva. It’s quick and easy and I really enjoy working with it. I took the picture at a golf course on Father’s Day. While the play isn’t about golf, it does use the “mulligan” theme all throughout it… so, I decided that it was best to have a golf backdrop.

Get Ready – Here Comes A Podcast

I’m working on a podcast! My friend Roger Shuman and I are getting together this weekend to record our first podcast. Roger and I have been friends for many years and we share the same strange brain and we have the same quirky sense of humor. The podcast we’re doing is called The First Five. In the podcast, we’re going to review the first five minutes of movies. Why only the first five minutes? Well, we’re older now and we can’t stay away for an entire movie. And, we can’t hardly go five minutes without having to empty our bladders. So, we’re going to be watching the first five minutes of movies and giving our take on what we see. Sound ridiculous? Absolutely. I can’t wait for you to hear the result!

So – What’s Next?

I’m going to take the evening off and go to a concert. I haven’t been doing that lately and to my concert buddies – I miss you too. I will resume my regular schedule once the book proposals are delivered on 7/1. I’m also planning on publishing my next blog post on Sunday evening. I’ve been working on it and I can’t wait for you to read it and read the story I will have attached to it. The blog post will be focused on the end of PRIDE month and will tackle some issues related to that. In fact, this will be the first of what will be many posts that will tackle interesting topics that are very contested in today’s political arena. I look forward to having civil discussion about these topics and hopefully bring us together with a better understanding of each other instead of splitting us further apart. Today’s political climate is so divisive, it drives me nuts. I hope some of my posts – like my short stories – will make you think deeper about the human elements behind the issues that divide us. When you get down to it, we’re more similar than we are different. Sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

I hope to see you all soon!