Category: Uncategorized
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HORRIBLY AWESOME, CHARMINGLY GRUESOME, ONE FOR THE AGES – OR NOT
As a writer, I have never been overly concerned with reviews. I remember my first play, Vikings, opening at the Manhattan Theatre Club in1981 in what was certainly a less than stellar production and the critic for the New York Times, Frank Rich, pretty much tearing both me and the theatre a new asshole for…
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On (Re)Writing Pretty Woman
To this day, people often ask me why my name doesn’t appear in the credits of the film, Pretty Woman, on which I did a lot of work. It’s a long story and it’s a short story. The long one first, at least as I remember it. In the late eighties, Touchstone Picture acquired the…
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Notes on a Son
When my son was sixteen years old, he did the Shark Fest Swim. Alcatraz to the wharves of San Francisco. One and half miles in cold, turbulent, shark infested water. I shivered and quaked at the thought. A year later, he and his high school swim mates did The Catalina Relay. Twenty odd miles from…
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Blocked
Writer’s Block: A condition in which a writer is either unable to produce new work or experiences a creative slowdown. It should be so simple. I don’t know if it’s age, the anxieties, and uncertainties of the current times, but I have lost my ability to create. It’s never happened before. In a forty-odd career…
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The “B” Word
9/19/23 Okay, guess what? You’ll never guess in a million years and so I’ll tell you. Sit on his ass at a desk me recently went to — wait for it — call it the “B” word — a baseball game. Yes! And not just any game. Major League Baseball, baby! San Diego Padres. Petco…
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YES, I’VE WRITTEN A NEW PLAY
I should have known there was something off when I fell asleep at the beginning of the second act. Granted I’d been up at six getting kids to school and walking dogs and yes, one of my problems with the theatre these days is it’s pretty much past my bedtime and yes, I’d had a…
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RODEO
(written in 2016) To all my fellow artists, friends and cohorts. You have no idea what you’ve been missing. I… wait for it… went to the rodeo last night. It was my son’s idea. Some friends from his job were going and he wanted to go too. I wasn’t sure. My son has high functioning…
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TWO ACTORS
Let’s not talk about writing. Let’s talk about the fact that making a living as an actor can really take it out of you. The highs, the lows, the uncertainty, the rejections. I’m thinking of two friends.
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On Work
Fact. In my late sixties, I’ve recently concluded that I’ve never worked a day in my entire life. I’ve certainly had employment. In my so-called “youth”, I bartended, bused tables and taught tennis and squash but though it paid the rent, did it count as work? No, not really. Busing and bartending seemed like a…
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Oblivious
One thing about getting older is, if you’re being honest with yourself, you have to admit you don’t have an overwhelming desire to be young again. This is not to say you wouldn’t mind the energy and idealism of youth, it’s just to say there’s a growing feeling of “thank goodness I don’t have to…
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Stephen Metcalfe 