Cassandra reading

We had a very good reading of the first 30 pages of THE CASSANDRA DIRECTIVE at NYCPlaywrights last night, and I have the perfect cast now, with Carolyn Paine, who was Willow in my SODOM AND GOMORRAH: THE ONE MAN SHOW, playing Chrissy the writer who has a crush on her roommate; Renee Cole as Dana the roommate/aspiring actor who ends up playing Cassandra the ladybot - she executed a perfect "Queen wave" in my monologue MOTHER'S DAY (starring Claire Warden, my future JULIA); and Amanda Thickpenny as the mousy producer Nora, played Maxine in my NEW RULES. Mike Durell, who played Eric in NEW RULES was Tommy the director and did a perfect hissy fit in the role; and Mike Giorgio, who played Oliver in SODOM AND GOMORRAH was quite good as Lee, the annoying actor who hero-worships Tommy.

I didn't get alot of laughs though, although that might be in part because half the audience was old men, and they prefer plays about old men sitting around talking about numismatics. I did get a laugh on this line - but I should hope so, if you can't get a laugh about masturbation it's time to hang it up:

CHRISTY

Maybe Nora really does have a crush on Tommy. Does he have a girlfriend?

DANA

Well, on his Facebook profile it says “it’s complicated.”

CHRISTY

A geek and his hand – what’s so complicated?

The women especially like the play - they each told me since the reading how much they enjoyed it. Well what's not to like? The female characters aren't saps (well Nora is at first, but she eventually breaks out) or personality-free killing machine ladybots or other typical shit roles that female actors are given. We're doing the next 30 pages at NYCPlaywrights in December. By spring I expect it will be ready to go.