Meet the Cast of "The Life of Leo Wool"

10 days til Showtime. Putting together the Playbill.

So, I am putting together the playbill, as the title of this post says. And it's leading me to one inexorable question: How did I get here?

I've been riding high on this wave of insistent, pressing busyness for weeks now. Months before that I was in the throws of tortuous uncertainty: would my play be good enough? Good enough to not embarrass me in front of everyone I've ever known?

Before that were those couple of weeks in May when I'd first signed on to do the play and it was all still abstract enough to not worry me.

Before that was January to April, when I worked on a couple rewrites, submitted an earlier and much different version to the Geva reading series and got rejected.

Before that was 2011. October to be exact, when I wrote the first draft freehand in a spiral notebook, sitting on my front porch on a chilly day.

It was a one-act play called The Life of Leo Wool, and Leo was still an aging literary critic with a lot to learn about people, but his story was much different. The original version had a Game Show Host and a Studio Audience circa 1960 who do a demonic "This is Your Life" forcing Leo to confront some early transgressions against women before he can finish his memoirs. That story ends with the book being closed and him walking out the door to deliver the manuscript.

In that version, Maura was Leo's salvation, with her ambivalent yet unconditional love. Through all the versions, that pretty much never changed. But almost everything else did. A subsequent version of the script had the studio audience turn into three people who, instead of jeering Leo, would come up, like on the show This Is Your Life, and make Leo uncomfortably confront them. They'd be a writer, a colleague, and some sort of co-ed he took advantage of. I decided that the only way Leo would get out of that purgatory would be to write. He would write, they would jeer, but eventually his attempt at authentic expression would win him heaven.

But it still wasn't quite right. Because I didn't really want to say that a critic was someone who was simply a failed artist. A popular statement for artists to make, but one I don't necessarily agree with. And not what I wanted to put into the world. It had been done often enough. No, I wanted to say something else about the life of Leo Wool.

An early sketch of Leo by Jeremy Sniatecki

Then I found him, Harold Bloom. In a Paris Review interview I almost gave away. Sitting in the donation pile (not unlike the donation pile that ends up in the play) was the answer. I snatched it from the jaws of oblivion and in the character of the real-life Harold Bloom, I found a body for Leo to inhabit. Someone whose immensity or charisma and charm made his harsh and unbending criticism seductive and even appealing.

I learned a lot about Harold Bloom during the month of July, mostly while my boyfriend was playing Ultimate Frisbee and I was sitting at a picnic table at Ellison Park. The rest I learned by reading articles online and thinking back to stories my professors had told me about him when I was an undergraduate. He seemed like the kind of person you'd be happy to read, but unhappy to share a small car with.

Through Bloom, I was able to pare down who Leo was and more of what it was I really wanted to say about criticism and literature. Bloom has spent much of his life explaining and defending his critical stances and he is often eloquent, even hilarious. He makes his cases well, and I wanted Leo to make his cases well too.

As an editor, I spend a lot of my time making manuscripts "better" which implies there is a better and a worse when it comes to writing. This alone puts me on the side of the people who don't see everything as having the same intrinsic value. Yet as a writer, I know how important it is to be encouraged.

I had a friend for a long time who didn't believe any significant work was being done by modern writers. He suggested I get a PhD, teach in Korea, pretty much do anything but be a writer. I considered this person my best friend and I understood his arguments. I believe he wanted what he thought was best for me and just didn't understand that if you need to write, you need to write. Just as Leo Wool doesn't understand it either. And that's okay. It doesn't mean he is a failed writer. It means he has a different role to play in society. Working through Leo Wool has also helped me work through my feelings toward this complicated, brilliant, and trouble man who was my closest friend.

Once I got to know my arguments and theme down, and once the characters started to come more and more alive, it was easier to write and tighten play. Each revision got longer yet more economical, focused, tightly woven. I knew where I wanted it to end, and I knew where it began. I know who was coming through the door and what their arguments were. It was just a matter of exploring those arguments through drama, identifiable human relationships. And a dose of humor, with which I had a lot of fun. It's always fun to go through after you got a scene down and put in the jokes. It's good when dealing with heavy topics, too, to subvert your own melodrama.

I got great feedback along the way from my director Sandi Henschel, from Daniel Herd, who is my boyfriend but also the first person to read the play out loud with me. His approval made a world of difference in my confidence. And he did things not every boyfriend would do. Like storyboard the first scene with me a half dozen times. Or act out the different parts in his little apartment. I'll never get over the corn pone Southern accent he gave Judith, the feminist Yale professor.

Then the final version on to Raquel Pidal and Buffy Armstrong Leonard, two dear friends who also happen to be sharp writers and great writing buddies. And to Michael Haugh, my tenth grade English teacher who has become a friend and mutual support. He asked to read the script and that was a big deal for me. He was a formidable and fascinating man when I was sixteen. Now I see him as a great man. And a truly great teacher.

So, I have to thank these wonderful people in the playbill. And I am thrilled to do it. And I also have to thank Melyssa Hall, whose poem is recited by Nadine, and who was a bit of a muse for me when developing Nadine - the first of the three writers to become clear in my head.

And I have to discuss how Rochester-based actor Jack Simel, for whom I wrote the play, brought me Sandi Henschel. And then Sandi brought this amazing cast of actors who I have heard described as the "old pros." Sandi brought my play credibility. She brought the cool kids to the party. She is a veteran director and could have taken on many other projects - or given herself a break these last three months - but she saw something in Leo Wool that she liked and so she put her rather formidable force behind it. I am very grateful.

And last, but also first, is Jeremy Sniatecki. I say "first" because it was his logo that made all the promotional aspects start to come together in June. His amazing design, based on one brief phone conversation, immediately and perfectly captured the sadness, stodginess, loneliness, and yet likability of Leo Wool. Jeremy is a high-level illustrator and designer who has offered his talent and time pro bono in the creation of the logo, the poster, the rack cards, and, as soon as I get the text down, the playbill. His talent, like Sandi's reputation, has given the play credibility. And all this has helped push me to write the best script I can. And it has helped us bring in donations to cover the production costs.

So, here I am. Time to write the program. Time to list the actors and the characters they are playing. Time to collect the head shots and the bios. Time to say the special thanks, and collect the ads from those who donated at that perk level. Time to list the donors like they do at the backs of programs for non-profit events. And time to write a little history about The Life of Leo Wool and how we got here. And how much has gone into just a simple staged reading for a Fringe Festival. And how much I've loved it. Loved all of it. Even when I wanted to quit (ask Dan or Raquel, they'll tell you) because I was so afraid I would fail.

Thank you to everyone; the many people who have supported simply by asking about the show, listening to me pontificate about it, reposting a link on their Facebook, or buying a ticket. And thank you to Daniel Herd, in his role as Fringe liaison to Writers & Books, for listening to me complain and worry and ask questions at all times of day, especially when you were off the clock.

And thank you to Writers & Books for giving me so much: the writing workshops I teach there, the clients who have found my services through you, the friendships I have made there, and the reduced-price rehearsal space. You have been more than accommodating. My relationship, my community, my students, my clients, and now my play, all seem to emerge through Writers & Books. Writers & Books really is a great treasure to me and the Rochester community.

Thank you to all those who donated. Your names and thanks will be in the playbill. Thank you to anyone I've missed.

Come to the play! It's going to be magic.

17 Days Until Showtime Check-In

1. Poster and rack cards designed and sent to printers (check)

2. Press release written and sent to news and media outlets (check)

3. Final version of the script ready to print and mail to actors (check)

4. Meeting tonight at Writers & Books with other Fringe shows (check)

5. $415 raised for the crowdsourcing campaign (check)

6. Feeling the excitement, the love, and the support (check!)

designed by Jeremy Sniatecki

Even $5 Can Help. And you can be immortalized in the program!

Sometimes the universe conspires to help you attain a dream. Over the past four months, I have been given some truly amazing resources toward achieving one of mine: a veteran director, an exceptional cast, and a space I love. All with which to put on my first play "The Life of Leo Wool."

The play will first be performed as a staged reading for Rochester, NY's first Fringe Festival in September 2012. My great hope is that the reading prompts excitement around the play and enough momentum to launch it into a full production in the not-to-distant future.

Many things have come together beautifullly, perfectly to make this happen. Help from Writers & Books, the performance venue, as well as local designer Jeremy Sniatecki, who designed our logo. Gifts of time and talent have been given freely.

All I need now is a little help paying for the production costs. 

If you want to help me put on my first play, the visit the Life of Leo Wool indiegogo campaign. 

Help Leo Wool Come to Life!

On Finding the Right Space to Revise

25 days until showtime.

I sat in the performance space, alone in the dark except for the lit stage area. I did this for two hours last Thursday and another two Saturday morning and for five hours yesterday. 

I did this in order to see.

What did I need to see?

I needed to SEE the play. The vague shapes of the actors playing out their lines again and again. I needed to see it so I could hear it in my mind.

And it worked.

It worked in a way that it wasn't working from my porch or my writing room.

The revisions have taken the writing closer and closer to that ideal, to the story I really want to tell. It is that strange and beautiful bird somewhere between writing and editing. If you can get it right, you can turn bad into okay, okay into good, and good into great.

You just need to find the right space for it.

For me, it was an empty room with chairs and a stage. The same room where my play would be put on.

For you it might be a backyard or your father's den or a linen closet.

Where can you SEE? That is what you have to answer.

Update: 33 days until opening night and feeling great

33 days until opening night. I am putting final touches on this week. Will be sending out binders with a final script after this weekend. That means this week I am going to hit the home run.

Since we are doing a staged reading instead of a full production, we will only have a handful of rehearsals. But we want to give the actors plenty of time to rehearse their lines.

I received some great responses to the script. One from an old friend who I hadn't seen in years who came out to read for the narrator:

"Dude I want to see the whole thing I have been telling everyone about it. Really enthralled, great writing."

Can't get much better than that. Especially for neurotic, self-critical ladies like me.

Now that I know the play (as it is so far) was well-received at the auditions, I feel much more confident about the script. I think final revisions will go fine. I'll try to post more frequently in the coming month about the new cast, the process of promoting a play (which I am still learning) and anything else that seems novel or interesting. As we approach go-time, there should be increasingly more to say.

Just a little extra: this is Dan and I on our way to the Sterling Renaissance Fair yesterday. The Ren Fair hires an enormous number of actors for the seven-week run every summer. Kudos to the Ren Fair. And merry met!*

*I'm a dork

Amazing Grace

Tonight was a night I will never forget. I got to see amazing actors perform my lines as they auditioned for my play. All the months of writing, rewriting, stress, and worry suddenly became this glorious experience. I wish I had more words but right now I don't. But I will say this: I am going to bed happy for the first time in a long time.

Open Auditions for "The Life of Leo Wool"

Open auditions for staged reading of "The Life of Leo Wool," a new play by Nina Alvarez. 

Directed by Sandi Henschel. Performed at Writers & Books as part of Rochester's first Fringe Fest.

Performance Dates @ Writers & Books:

Saturday 9/22 6:00 p.m.

Saturday 9/23 11:00 a.m.

AUDITIONS

• Auditions will be done is a large group.
• Everyone should arrive and be ready to begin at 7 pm.
• Actors should bring a head shot and resume.
• Bring a 1 minute monologue to READ. PLEASE do not memorize.
• After you've done your monologue, we will ask you to do a cold reading with another auditioner.

   

CHARACTER LIST

Leo Wool: ALREADY CAST

Maura Wool: The spirit of Leo’s dead wife.

Nadine: A student at Yale. Leo's protege. 

Julian Campbell: A Brooklyn-based African-American novelist.

Judith: A feminist literary theorist and professor at Yale.

Narrator

REHEARSALS

8/18 - First read-through @ Sandi's in Brockport

After the first read-thru on 8/18, we won't rehearse again until Mid-September.

About Sandi Henschel, Director of "The Life of Leo Wool"

S. J. [Sandi] Henschel is a New York City-trained actress, director and writer. Her performance credits include major roles in productions ranging from off-Broadway to regional theatre. She has worked with most of Rochester’s theatre companies, either onstage or backstage and was the Associate Director to SUNY Brockport’s Summer Arts Festival for several years, directing such shows as A CHORUS LINE and 42nd STREET. A resident director for TYKEs [Theatre Young Kids Enjoy], she is also a co-founder of the Rochester Fringe Play Reading Series performing at Blackfriars Theatre. The series is dedicated to bringing Rochester audiences new and exciting plays that might not receive a full production.


Her poetry [as Sandi Piccione] has appeared in such literary journals as THE OHIO REVIEW, THE AMERICAN POETRY REVIEW, THE SOUTH FLORIDA REVIEW, and many others. She is the author of two chapbooks, AFTER A LONG TIME WAITING and POLAR SUN, and has written several short plays, including the book and lyrics for a children’s musical, GOTTA DANCE! For 6 years she served as editor to the English Record, the journal of the New York State English Council and she is currently a Contributing Editor to AUDIOFILE Magazine. She hosts a weekly program for WXXI’s Reachout Radio, a service for the blind and visually impaired.

Meeting with Sandi Henschel, the Director

Sandi Henschel (director) and Nina Alvarez (playwright)

I met with Sandi today to go over the current script, make some changes, and plan the audition invitation. And the synchronicity of our tastes got me thinking to how this whole thing started.

When I wrote "The Life of Leo Wool," it was October 2011. I sat on my front porch, inspired by the vision of my friend Jack Simel on stage at MuCCC the night before. His character was sitting at a writing desk and I suddenly saw Jack playing an aging, distinguished writer.

I didn't know why the image moved me, but eight hours later I had a one-act play about a writer looking back on his life. I revised and revised, then showed it to Jack. Because I'd written it with him as my muse, and because he is a great guy, he agreed to play the lead role. Not only that, but he got his long-time friend Sandi Henschel, a local director with an incredible theater resume, to be my director.

As a poet, playwright, and former English teacher, Sandi resonated with the literary themes of "Leo." And I have asked the universe for just that: someone who would understand my play.

Having Sandi on my side has been an incredible boon. I am leaning so much about what it takes to actually put on a production, add drama and movement to a play that is very intellectual, and how to make the most of the time and resources we have. You have no idea how much of a disaster this could have been without the help of these people who actually know what they are doing.

Learn more about Sandi.

"They have not been moved by literature..."

I wrote last week about the general "I like what I like" philosophy of assessing art. In the academy, it isn't much different. The qualifiers might not come down to enjoyment, but being offended that anyone might announcing themselves as the arbiter of taste. As the creator of standards.

These people who have been most offended by the Western canon and its standards are cheekily labeled by Bloom as The School of Resentment. 


"They have not been moved by literature," he says in a 1991 interview with The Paris Review. "Many of them are my former students and I know them well. They are now gender and power freaks."


Harold Bloom, as he has often said in interviews, does not create followers. But he has sparked great love by some powerful voices in the field of criticism. Some of the most outspoken ones women: Camille Paglia, Marjorie Perloff and his arguments can be seen laced in theirs. 

"We can't really ask literature, or the representatives of a literary culture, to save society. Literature is not an instrument of social change or an instrument of social reform. It is more a mode of human sensations and impressions which do not reduce very well to social rules or forms."

I was trained in the study of literary theory. I have a master's degree in it. But when I left the academy 10 years ago, I found that what I still read, I read to keep my spirit alive. And to do that, I have to approach a text as sacred, whole, mystical. 


And what I hear in Bloom's interviews makes sense to me. But I can still see the value in theory. So I write this play to work out the dialectic for myself. And hopefully to give my audience both sides to ponder. 

What do you think?

It's the People Who Like You Who Really Make It Happen

Daniel Herd (Writers & Books) and Nina Alvarez ("The Life of Leo Wool")

One of the coolest things about my Fringe experience is being able to liaise professionally with my honey. Daniel Herd is Writers & Books' Fringe liaison, my show is being performed at Writers & Books. So I get to do things like call him up at 11 o' clock at night and ask if Fringe offers comped tickets. Or suddenly, while having a beer, demand to know if I can rent an extra half hour of loading/unloading time. He puts up with me.

It's become so clear to me that community theater gets put on because of friendships as much as anything else. Because people who like each other want to see each other succeed. I'm learning a lot about what it really means to be "grassroots."

Rochester Fringe Fest Kicks Off Ticket Sales with a Press Conference

Walking into the dark of The Little Theater this morning was like walking backstage at a Cirque du Soleil. The air was ripe with buzz and that sense of dancers and clowns, comedians and drag queens, all waiting to perform. A couple of them actually did as part of the press conference. I'm sure there will be video in some of the local news coverage and I'll paste some here.


The First Rochester Fringe Festival press conference attendees were introduced to the creative, hard-working board of Fringe Fest as well as First Niagara, who is sponsoring the event. Erica Fee, who appears to be one of the most hard-working gals in Rochester, and a sampling of the 120 productions that will be shown in one tiny little week from September 19-23, 2012, including Patton Oswalt, Project Bandaloop, and the Harlem Gospel Choir.

I am so proud of Rochester for being cutting edge enough to host a Fringe Fest and so proud that my play "The Life of Leo Wool" is going to be a part of it.

Tickets are are now OFFICIALLY on sale! Tickets to "The Life of Leo Wool" are $10 and can be purchased online here:

If you prefer to pay by phone, you can go here: http://rochesterfringe.com/audiences/tickets/

Twilight or Hamlet?

Harold Bloom, on who my character Leo Wool is based, has said that literature is to be read comparatively. In other words, that the way to criticize literature is to read widely and closely and then compare: greater than, less than, equal to. Therefore, if one were to read, let's say, Stephanie Meyer's Twilight next to Shakespeare's "Hamlet," one would have to say that Hamlet is clearly greater than Twilight. Why?

There are many arguments to be made and the purpose of my play, in part, is to make those arguments as clearly as possible. As well as the counter-arguments. Very briefly, Bloom's arguments tend to return him to the western canon as a legacy come down from Homer, dealing with certain questions of how we live and make meaning. 


Yes, it always comes back to meaning-making. Which gives us a stronger sense of that delicate anguish called meaning? Which can you return to again and again and again throughout a lifetime and always come back with richness?


We live in an age where the difference between high art and low art is muddied. An age of "I like what I like, so nuts to you."  


What do you think? Can anyone say one piece of art is fundamentally better than another?

On Pompous Old Wind Bags

I posted yesterday about the first story I ever heard about Harold Bloom. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this story. It is a long-ago story from nearly two decades ago, but the character I imagined in my mind stuck. The pompous old wind bag, as they say in Disney movies about fat kings (see: Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty). 

But there was more to find out. More conversations to be had. The offending specter of the old guard. A man who opposed the very blood and viscera of my mid-late 90s SUNY education, which was steeped in social politics. Feminist readings, Marxist readers. Lacan, Faucault, de Saussure, Derrida. Reading against the grain. I remember that sentence. Reading against the grain. 


And I loved it. I fell for it. Because I wanted to see the secret codes hidden in texts. How the books we all read reflect our hegemony. How power structures reside in grammar. According to de Saussure, an early 19th century Swiss linguist, we only understand words negatively. In other words, by what they are not. Yeah, you know what? There is no way I am going to do Saussurian theory any justice here. You can google him.


People who Bloom has fought bloody batttles against and also befriended personally. He has said: 

"After fighting the New Criticism so endlessly, I suddenly found myself fighting the Deconstructionists, another group of people who were and are my personal friends. Except for one—I don't talk to Derrida anymore, for all sorts of complicated personal reasons that I wouldn't want to bring up. But I continue to badly miss Paul de Man, whom I deeply love as a person, though we always fought and couldn't agree on anything." 

So, now I had to think of Leo (Bloom) as a more complex creature. A man who could distinguish the argument from the arguer. Who could even love those who disagreed with him.

The First Story I Ever Heard About Harold Bloom

I first heard about Harold Bloom as a college undergraduate. My professor (a non-fiction writer who had co-authored a book on female rage and even gone on Donahue to talk about it) told us a story about having to pick Professor Bloom up from the airport and drive him to our campus for his visit. See, he didn't drive.

The real insult, though, was that he wasn't interested in her work at all. Usually there is a polite give and take: What do you do? Ah, that's nice. Here is what I write about. No, for Bloom there was only him and his ideas.

These are the kind of people I openly loathe and secretly love. Or the other way around.

I had to understand what makes a person think they don't  have to do things like learn to drive or use a typewriter. Or listen to people they find boring or paltry. Part of me wants to be Harold Bloom, I suppose. Maybe in another life.

That is who Leo Wool is, I suppose. Part Harold Bloom, part me.

You can't make a play without people

There is so much to do. So much that has already been done. So many moving parts to putting on a play, but a lot of elegance too.  I am very grateful for the people who have come out of the woodwork to help:

• To talented people like local designer Jeremy Sniatecki who created us a stellar logo in just a handful of days and who has also offered help with the creation of the set, outreach to directors, and merchandising. (I will definitely blog about that experience in future posts.)
• To theater friends who have acted as wise consultants: Jack Simel and Marlena Dater.
• And to Daniel Herd, who has heard me talk and whine and worry about this play every day for the past six weeks. Who is my IR (ideal reader) and my script consultant. And who seems to believe in me and my work.
• To all my friends who re-post and retweet about Leo Wool. Who comment on our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/TheLifeOfLeoWool. And who are coming from as far away as Bucks County, Pennsylvania to see the play.

Writer Brain, Producer Brain, Nina Brain

Nina Alvarez, writer/producer

Here it is. A bulleted look inside my mind as of early July, 2012. 78 days till showtime. Or what I like to call "a feeble attempt to organize Chaos Brain."

Writer Brain

• I feel a lot of self-imposed responsibility to put on a great production. I hold myself to a high standard and I want everyone involved in this project to be proud of it. That is what is giving me the most anxiety these days.

• In June I was determined to re-write the story to something I really thought was much better. But I am a perfectionist and scared out of my mind that the revised draft still wouldn't be good enough. So scared that I pulled out every writing resource I had.

• Researched for hours a day the real people that my characters are based on. (Discovering that my characters WERE based on real people was half the fun.)

• I was forced to sum up the story BEFORE it was completely written so I could explain it to our logo designer as well as submit the synopsis to Fringe. (Will definitely tell that story in another post) But this this turned out to be a benefit because:

• Using the summaries, visual cues collected for designer, and a sense of unmitigated urgency to understand my story's tone, structure, and theme BEFORE rewriting. (What I used to think was the last resort of uninspired writers but now see has great merits.)

• Rewrote Leo Wool into a new story line. Tighter, better drawn, cleaner structure, less pyrotechnics. GO DEEPER, NOT WIDER was the mantra in my head. Took me at least a month. But I love the new script. And my beta reader loves it. (sending it out to a couple other readers this week)

• Showed the new script to the actor for whom I wrote Leo. He DIDN'T love it. Likes Leo, but thinks the point of the story isn't clear. Not enough exposition and the arguments might be too literary. Agree with most of what he says. Taking what constructive criticism I can and revising this week.

Producer Brain

• Need to run auditions, which means I need a director first.

• Waiting to hear back from potential directors who may want to see the script and direct the play. Starting to realize this part of the process is much harder than I thought. Probably because of the time commitment on the director's part. Thought I would have a lot more opportunities to be choosy, but getting the sinking feeling that with directors you may have to take what you can get.

• Need to cast in enough time to have at least 20 rehearsals, which means we need to run auditions in the next couple weeks and get start very soon after.

• Need to find a place for us to rehearse. Want to rehearse at Writers and Books, where the performances will be, but that will cost us money. Need to pitch them some sort of long-term rental deal and see if they go for it.

• Either way, this is an expense on top of the honorariums I intend to pay my cast and crew, so need to launch a sponsorship/crowdfunding campaign to raise at least $1,500.

• Vacillating between hand-wringing and giving it all up to a higher power. Reminding myself multiple times a week to stay focused on the heart and soul, the vision and energy. Let the right people come to me. The right director will show up. The right actors will show up. As long as I stay focused on the joy. As long as I remember why I am doing this. Love over fear. Again and again and again.

Nina Brain

• I knew that putting on a play would be a huge project, but I'm in that phase where I'm putting hours of work into it every day and still feeling behind.

• Trying to do all this on top of running my editing business, doing a huge pro bono publishing project for a local homeless shelter, and teaching week-long youth writing workshops for the first time. 

• Thank God I have friends who want to help me - and people I didn't even know before stepping forward to help me as well. 

Using Facebook and Twitter as Your Character

The wonderful thing about bloggers

...is bloggers are wonderful things. No but seriously, the wonderful things about the new age of social networking is that you can create new and exciting ways to interact with your audience. You can have your characters tweet (My favorite TV show "Community" created an actual twitter based on the character Troy's tweeting Old White Man Says)


The character of Leo Wool is loosely based on the very real literary critic Harold Bloom. Some of the lines Leo speaks on Facebook, twitter are his own and some are direct quotes appropriated from Harold Bloom. 


The purpose of this is to draw attention to the blurred lines between fact and fiction in the creation of fictional characters based on real people. Plus, Harold Bloom says really hilarious, wonderful things.


That's why I'm giving this a shot. Imagining what Leo would say about certain things my friends post on Facebook. Having him weigh in and be inflammatory, opinionated, delightful, curmudgeony. We'll see if it gets some people interested in the play. I guess real success would be if I got people responding, arguing or agreeing with him. If not, at least I am getting to know my main character better.

For those interested in doing this for their own characters, these are the different ways I engage with the Life of Leo Wool's facebook page:


As Leo commenting on pop culture, media, and art (written by me) 

Directly quoting Harold Bloom but giving credit to Leo.

As myself playing along that Leo is a real person.

As myself sharing real information about process, production, and play writing. This serves not only to develop a personal connection with a potential audience.

And maybe most importantly, as a way to call out for help, resources, ideas, and talented allies.