I have been whining about Writer’s Block for a couple of years. Whining, fretting, raging – in despair. I’ve tried everything – exercises, games, ten minute nonstop unfiltered writing, resting, relaxing. Nothing. Zip.

In September, Valerie Ruel, an actress with the Kentwood Players, asked me if I had a short play she could look at. She was auditioning to direct at Kentwood and had to bring in a more or less full production of a short play for a one night workshop, which the membership would attend.

I gave her my favorite one act play, a comedy called Rondo a la Condo. It’s a forty-five page, one set piece with five characters. And she liked it. Not only that, she asked me to play a part in it. “Well,” I said, “Yes.” I think I may also have said, “Yippee.”

We rehearsed for a brief couple of weeks. Valerie was efficient and well prepared, the actors were fun and enthusiastic, and the stage manager transformed the existing set into a condo balcony in about ten seconds flat. On performance night, the audience loved it.
We all had a blast!

After it was over, one of the actors, Ted Pitsis, said, “People don’t put up one acts. Why don’t you turn this into an evening?” “Impossible,” I thought and put it out of my mind.

Then, walking down the street, the other day, I suddenly had a “What If?” Out of the blue. What ifs came tumbling after what ifs. What if this one act is actually the second act of a two act play? What if the first act took place fifteen years earlier? What if the one actor plays two different parts, one in the first act, and one in the other? Etc.

I made some notes and have made some more and I’m hope, hope, hoping that the note making continues and the lines start to flow.

It could happen. It’s happened before. Yippee.