I’m having a small reading at my parents place this afternoon of a play I’ve been working on for a couple years now. I sent the word out about wanting to do an informal reading on January 2nd to those I thought might be interested. My greatest ally accepted at once and I knew the game was afoot. If no one else was available to attend at least we’d be able to write songs together. Naturally most were unavailable for one reason or another. A second majority didn’t respond at all. Maybe I had an old email address, maybe it went to the junk mail, maybe emails from me are not worth responding too, maybe they forgot, you can never be too sure. Best not to dwell. I got a maybe from another and then finally a third confirmed. It wasn’t really happening until the third accepted. Now the four of us will read my latest creation: Witch: The Diary of Mercy Bridgewood. I tried to get some last minute recruits. Friends who I’d initially hadn’t thought would be interested but they said maybe next time. It’s all good. January is quite the slow month where schemes for dreams are concerned. The dream is to make this literary baby happen this year. Anyway, I hear it read out loud today. I’ll be reading as well cause 12 characters spread over 4 people it’s ok we can do it. I just like hearing it something about hearing it gives me more clarity as to what needs to be done to fix it and make it better.
The play weaves the lives of two very different women Mercy Bridgewood (17th century witch) and Jenny James (the 21st century actress cast to play her). The play within the play is cursed its made up of ancient texts that release the witch from the pages and the witch Mercy possesses Jenny. That’s the gist in a nutshell. There’s more to it.
The idea happened upon me whilst in a shop that had tea. I was starring at a mug with a witch on it and the idea well in visual images came upon me. A woman, an actress plays the most famous witch there ever was who happened to be a real person and becomes possessed by the witch. The idea and images that came to me in that moment filled me with such excitement that I told the person who I was with that I just had the greatest idea ever. I recommend never saying that to anyone on the outside of your inspiration ever they just won’t be able to see what you see.
Waking Dreams Up 