Hi, everybody. How ya doin’?

So… a lot has gone down since I last wrote here in [checks notes] January? (Yikes, I’ve really let cobwebs gather over here.) Among them…

  • My podcast, A Good Nightmare Comes So Rarely, which — as you may recall — concerns itself with the downfall (and possible return) of the notorious Broadway flop Dance of the Vampires, now has two episodes out, and many more to come! (On a mildly related note, the CDAN blind item is about us, but we’re not ready to comment just now.)
  • For years, many of my friends have told me that with the depth and breadth of my knowledge of certain musicals, I should write a book. Many of them particularly pestered me for a definitive study guide to Jesus Christ Superstar, not from a behind-the-scenes history perspective, but similar to the student materials that MTI and other licensing houses hand out. I resisted for a long time… until I couldn’t anymore. You can visit this link to read Impressions of a Crucifixion, an in-depth guide to JCS for performers, directors, and passionate enthusiasts. I welcome all responses – questions, critiques, comments, you name it. It feels like I’ve been writing this book for most of my life because, in a way, I have. I hope it was worth the effort!
  • On the production front, things are continuing to percolate; as of September, I’m in my 18th year of “almost fame.” Richard and I recently made a solicited Netflix submission, and we’re actively scouting financing for other projects, both stage and screen.

But more importantly, I’m returning to this blog, because in its downtime, I’ve done a lot of re-reading, taking stock, assessing, recalibrating even. Looking back over the past four years of its existence, there’s a lot of “practical advice” on this blog that I would not be nearly so regimented about now; on the other hand, there are a lot of ideas, specifically where my directing and business proposals are concerned, that have been refined and polished.

And thus, my new series: “Update and Refresh.” I’m going to take a second look at some items where my initial instincts have evolved over time and restate my thesis, as it were.

I’m starting with some low-hanging fruit: script formatting.

In the second month of the blog’s existence, searching high and low for material to fill it and establish my credentials as someone with a smart head on their shoulders, I repurposed as authoritative some “house rules” about formatting that I’d put together for a Facebook group I’d started devoted to “fan edits” (typically of musicals), both the usual suspects and the obscure, by enthusiasts who can’t help revising their favorites in the (largely vain) hope of creating a version that “works.”

As you might have guessed from the thrust of this entry so far, I no longer use any of that as a guideline. (Apart from Courier Prime, which still has a purpose where screenplays are concerned, but I only use that in screenplays.) Instead, I have a new set of rules, based loosely on a template established by Greensburg, PA’s Stage Right! Professional Theatre and School for the Performing Arts, with some twists of my own as well. As before, this is by no means intended to be definitive, but it works if you’re trying to zhuzh up (that’s how it’s spelled; you’re welcome) the look of your scripts, and it is the current “house format” in my office as well. I expect that I may change my mind on this subject again, but for now, I like it this way, and hopefully you will, too!

Click here to read more about it.