PUPFest 2014

Rehearsals for The Holding Fix at PUPFest 2014

The cast of The Holding Fix. Good group of student artists.

This week I have been working with some great high school student actors and playwrights as part of Kitchen Dog Theater and Junior Player's PUPFest 2014 (which stands for Playwrights Under Process). I am directing a play by a young man named Tom. It is a funny one-act called The Holding Fix. He was heavily influenced by Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guilenstern Are Dead and Samuel Beckett's Waiting For Godot. 

I am often amazed at the number of young playwrights who really take to Godot as a launching point for their own works. It is the third Godot-inspired student play I have been assigned in the half-dozen years I have been involved with PUPFest. Which is kinda nice (and flattering, since it is my wheelhouse).The Holding Fix involves two limo drivers in an airport terminal waiting for their fares, who they may have missed or may never show up.

I have had a great group of student actors who have been enthusiastic and attentive, even as I have been drilling bits of comic business into them, making harsh demands about pacing and strongly insisting they play all objectives fully.

Nice write-up on the DallasNews.com blog, too... HERE

It premieres as a staged reading (emphasis on "staged") at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary's black box space, Saturday June 14, 2014 at both 1 PM and 4 PM. Free admission. More info... HERE.

The cast, director and playwright of The Holding Fix

The Holding Fix in performance