Monday, December 04, 2006

Serving Bessie: It's a Hit!

I read my new one-act, Serving Bessie, at the Mytown Playwright's Lab this evening and it was a big fat hit. Woo hoo! I was a little nervous -- see, I live in this uber-progressively liberal town in Western Massachusetts, and wasn't certain that the Lab members would find humor in a play whose premise is "a vegan and a Jersey cow are trapped together on a desert island" -- but there were chuckles throughout and they loved the ending. They all agreed that it didn't need to be any longer, and they all thought it was plenty funny ("It's one joke," Sarah said, "but it's a really funny joke."). Hooray! Toby said it was a "short little funny arc thing," which cleared my apprehension that the vegan character might be too one-note.

So I just got home and popped the bottle of Gloria Ferrar Brut sparkling wine that I just happened to buy the other night, and it tastes like victory. Hell yeah!

Serving Bessie, Western Massachusetts, artistic freedom

4 comments:

Boldly Serving Up Wheat Grass said...

OMG, that's funny. Would love to read that play! (My wife & daughter are vegan, btw!!)

LBJ said...

Send me an e-mail to lynn at motormouth dot com and I will send you a copy. Same goes for any of y'all...

Boldly Serving Up Wheat Grass said...

"Tom." "Tom." "Tom."

OMG... that's a HUGE laugh. With the right delivery, an actress would have the whole audience in tears at that.

I also liked the pacing of that joke. As soon as she says it, the cow nuzzles her, allowing as much time as is needed for the audience to laugh.

I suspected that the cow could end it like that. At a performance, I'd suggest playing an organ version of Amazing Grace as the curtain closes.

Nice work!

ps Loved the "deathstyle" comment, too!

LBJ said...

I came up with the Tom joke after reading of a Thanksgiving candlelight vigil in the SF Chronicle. Posted it to their comments but nobody responded. Nevertheless I laughed about it for a week. Great idea to end with Amazing Grace. Glad you liked it.