MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I hope everyone has a VERY Merry Christmas, and an even BETTER New Year!

So - here's the deal ... on radio I am pretty much MR. CHRISTMAS; with our Dickens Christmas CD set on sale in stores and online, Cricket on the Hearth, Seven Poor Travellers, The Chimes playing all next week on XM, Dibble Christmas shows coast to coast and stations here and there ... the OZ show that has Santa in it, THE ROAD TO OZ plays on Christmas Eve, a Christmas show playing Off-Broadway ...

and I dont even have a tree, nor have I done ANY shopping. Not a window candle to be found.

Never used to be like that. So, I gotta sit here and ask myself why. Well, I know there are a few reasons, but still - I need to stop this. It's been five years since I put a tree up!

The family next door left a Christmas card / photo in the mailbox, which was very nice of them. Great kids! The nine year old wants to write a book about mini-bikes. Last I heard he had nine pages! Now, for a nine year old, I think that's pretty good!

OTHER NEWS

Dibble got a rather nasty review from a failed playwrite - turned - critic. I mean, this review wasn't even a review - it was more like "I hate this script, Jerry Robbins can't write, the jokes suck, and it's nothing but a bomb" kinda review. He even gave away the entire plot / gag. What a guy!

Turns out David Finkle (thats his name, rymes with wrinkle) is a flopola who penned a play that closed after only (ahem) TWO PERFORMANCES in 1968, and then he tried again in 1972 and - yep, you guessed it - EL FLOP-O in seven performances. So, what we have is a bitter "if I bomb, you bomb" playwrite turned critic who seems to go after the script writing in all his "reviews." So I consider it an honor to join the ranks of shows like MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS who have been slapped by his bitterness. But, it must be horrible to be a failed playwrite who only saw a total of 9 performances before REAL critics told him to get a day job (I wont tell David that Dibble has already breezed past his performance record).

I feel sorry for people like him. A once "promising" playwrite who got a chance, bombed like the Hindenburg, and spends the rest of life trying to do the same to others. Now, I can take a bad review, but this wasn't a review; it was a rant from a failed man.
You cant touch ME, David, but nice try!

Back from a great time in NYC and the opening of DIBBLE OFF BROADWAY! What a night! Drew DeCorleto has done a magnificent job bringing our radio series THE NEW DIBBLE SHOW to life on the stage. First of all, the show looks great! The cast sits in directors chairs with their names on them (Rita, Penelope, Etc),and they are on a rise that looks like snow! Then there is a PERFECT looking Christmas Tree, and a sound effects table to die for!

In the house on opening night were playwrite/screenplay writer Michael Weller (Ragtime, Hair, Moonchildren, Zhivago), Christopher Kyle (Alexander, K-19 - The Widowmaker), Jito Lee (Set designer), and J.T. Turner (CRT).

Drew took three of the holiday radio scripts and edited them into one, and then I did some bridge work and punch ups, and then took Jeff's music cues and worked them into the show. Then he needed to cast the show - and he found the perfect cast! I really love this production, and I only wish I could see it again. I have to thank EVERYONE involved and I hope that anyone who reads my blog and lives in the NYC area will see the show and support the Broken Watch Theatre Company!!

Last night we recorded another POWDER RIVER episode! We have three more to do on Monday (which I now need to write) and then I think I'm going to give the show a rest for a while. That will give us 60 episodes, and I need to focus on our Bradbury productions and also a VERY EXCITING project I will mention here soon.

So, back to the old drawing board. Hope you can get to NYC and pay Dibble a visit!

OUTTA HERE

Off to NYC for the opening night of DIBBLE Off Broadway! Late night finishing up another POWDER RIVER script that we tape on Wednesday. busy, busy!

DIBBLE STEPS OUT

Previews start today in NYC for DIBBLE DOES CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK! at the Michael Weller Theater. Drew DeCorleto is directing a fantastic cast, and I wish them all a ton of success! The plays official opening is Monday night, the 11th!

More writing today.

DANDELION WINE - JAN.5TH

Our production of RAY BRADBURY'S DANDELION WINE is released on Jan.5th from Blackstone Audio! Here is the official cover art! It's already available for pre-sales in the usual places (Amazon, Borders, ect) and I have a good feeling about this one! Not only is it a magnificent script (by Mr. Bradbury himself), but the cast just nailed it - and lets not even start to talk about Jeff's music score! Anyway, it's going to be exciting to get this one out the door!

HOW ABOUT A PIRATE FOR A CHRISTMAS GIFT? I was at Barnes and Noble over the weekend and saw three copies of our CAPTAIN BLOOD on the shelf! Next month I get the numbers and see how it did in release. Talk about nerve wracking!! Still, I think it continues to sell judging by the sales ranking on Amazon and B&N.com, but you can't really tell as those systems ARE rocket science!

Now I need to play "catch up" on Powder River, as I have missed two planned recording sessions. I got a little bug that caused me to lose my voice completely, and I had to finish a script for the next Bradbury production, AND get new programming ready for our XM show - so Powder River writing suffered and the scripts didnt happen.

DIBBLE IN NEW YORK starts previews this week and opens Dec. 11th!

We have recorded all the PHIL BYRNES scripts we had, and now the final 4 episodes are in post production! Sable Jack did a great job with this series, and I hope she likes the final product! This will be on our XM show in January, and we will offer it for download soon, and eventually a CD release!

Looks like our stage production of William Luce's magnificent play BARRYMORE will rise from the packing trunks for an engagement in Gloucester, MA at the WEST END THEATER. We haven't locked in a date yet, but I think it will be late March or April. Joe Zamparelli will direct again, and we are auditioning the other role in the show. This is very exciting, because it's my favorite play to do, and the last time we performed it was at the Derry Opera House in Derry NH. The GOOD news is, that I need to get in fighting shape for the stage, which means ATKINS DIET again!! So if you're in the Gloucester MA area, I hope you come see the show and say hi afterwards!

Thats all for now.

DICKENS ALL THE WAY

How cool is that artwork!? I'm really glad that our four Dickens holiday shows are FINALLY out on CD! THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH, THE CHIMES, THE SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS and A CHRISTMAS CAROL are available in the 4-CD set! Out of the four, only SEVEN POOR TRAVELLERS, is the original version! TRAVELLERS was actually the last story to be recorded, but the very first CRT show to be digitally recorded! The others had already been done, and edited. So, we release them on cassette tape, but that happens three years later. In the meantime, once I heard we were going to be released as a boxed set by our then publisher, I decided to do the other three shows over all over again, in digital stereo. So, in the Grand Thalburg style, CRICKET, CHIMES and CAROL were ditched, totally re-recorded (only a couple of the original actors remaining) and released. Those are the versions you hear in this set. Turn the lights down low, with a Christmas Tree in the room, and listen to our CHRISTMAS CAROL. It's magic :)

CRT does AESOP / and I HATE computers

So there I am on Saturday after clocking in a 17 hour writing spree (for a script I needed to finish on Sunday - the new Ray Bradbury project), SAVING after every page .... then I shut down the document to work on the New York Dibble show, and la la la, go about my merry way. IMAGINE MY SURPRISE when, the following morning I open the Bradbury script, to discover that NONE OF THE SAVES WORKED! That's right. Everything I did on Saturday was g-g-g-GONE! GONE WITH THE WIND! After I had a melt down with some 25 year scotch, I then had a nervous breakdown. Mainly because the dramatization was not easy, and this was the toughest part of the book.

That was Saturday.

SUNDAY was a waste. I tried to recall the lost document - didn't work.

MONDAY I had recording sessions from the afternoon on, for the POWDER RIVER session the previous Monday. SO - at 8pm Monday night I sat down and started on the script, re-writing what I did on Saturday. It's never as good the second time around. Determined to finish the script - I sat here at the writing desk through the night, morning, early afternoon (pots and pots of coffee), finishing at 2:30pm. Emailed the script off to Mr. Bradbury, and hopefully he will approve of it.

That night, the cyber head ache kicked in. Always happens after 20 or more hours at the computer.

BUT - the script is done, and with luck the show will be in stores in 2007. Well, we have to record it first, but you get the general idea.

We finished a new show this week ... A VISIT WITH AESOP. Now, this is really cool. I know parents are going to say "Aesops Fables? Well, maybe for the kids ... but not me." I'm telling ya, this is one fantastic show! J.T. Turner adapted it, and performed it; and it's so FUNNY! It's also unlike anything CRT has produced before. Basically a one man show, J.T. has a staggering array of voices, and add another classic Jeffrey Gage score with the incredible post production wok of Chris Snyder - and you got a real gem. Kids are going to love it, and any parent within earshot is going to have some great laughs and smiles. Not sure when Blackstone will release this one - probably in the spring - but I really have no idea.

Busy Days, busy days. I got new XM progamming finished through the end of December; went out yesterday so that's all set for a couple of weeks. Today I'm going to be working on (and trying to finish) a script for Ray Bradbury that we are producing soon. worked an average of 20 hours a day this week - so I'm taking it slow this weekend.

Tickets for DIBBLE DOES CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK! went on sale yesterday, so if you live in NYC or plan on being there in December - check out the show!

Our 1999 production of THE PLIMOTH ADVENTURE airs on XM Radio on Thanksgiving Day! This is the first national broadcast for this show that is now - yikes - seven years old! I can remember the AGONY in writing this script. I worked on and off for two years (mostly "off") and working from Gov. Bradfords 300 year old book "Of Plimoth Plantation." The final show is one of our shortest (for a feature), but went on to be a top seller for CRT. Jeff did a GREAT score for this one, incorporating actual songs from the period.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

1) Does anyone really care about Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes getting married? It's everywhere. Seriously - do you care?? The guy cant even act! He just tilts his upper lip so we can see his teeth in every shot. TOM - you are no longer 17. Close the mouth and act your age!

Cruise fans - dont yell at me - you're right, I never thought much of him to begin with.

2)I think the new James Bond movie looks great! I stopped going to see them when they got silly. I miss Sean Connery's Bond - and this one looks promising.

3) I love the re-vamped STAR TREK - Original Series - with new effects! Outstanding! Too bad Scotty and Bones aren't around to see how cool it looks.

4) I love Pumpkin Ale. The pub ran out. Does that mean I drank too much? Every time I discover a new drink at this place, they run out a week later. Hmmmmmmm

5) I feel so bad for Paul McCartney. Heather was a bus accident waiting to happen - and I said this YEARS ago! paul - a word of advice - NEVER marry a woman who tells you she never heard of the Beatles. That is a HUGE Red Flag!!! I love Paul and I hope he rebounds from this mess without too much finanical loss (The picture on this blog is Macca leaving the stage in Boston)

6) I could listen to Beatles music forever (well, so far, I HAVE been!)

7) No more random thoughts. Time to start writing. Adios!

2)

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

Veterans Day. Never Forget.