Well… there’s a new play in my life and I’m feeling grateful. I started thinking about DRUNK AT THE BASE OF THE BODHI TREE years ago and in fact wrote a short story about the main character, but it didn’t really take off until I did a week-long Silent Writing Retreat with Erik Ehn last summer in Bolinas. I had no intention of writing about that character, but she kept showing up in response to Erik’s spiritual/poetic/artistic process which helped me access deeper levels and surprising turns. His request was that we write a play in a week, so that’s what I did— but it wasn’t very good. That was in June. In November I was fortunate to have a residency at Ucross in Wyoming. (An experience I wrote about HERE.) I thought I’d be rewriting the play… but when I reread it I threw it out completely and started over. So it felt like I wrote a new play in two and a half weeks… but it was actually years in the making.
I first heard the play read in a small group of friends at the Ebell in January, getting some very useful feedback. DRUNK AT THE BASE OF THE BODHI TREE was a finalist for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival this year, but I was unable to make those dates, which kind of broke my heart. Then— surprise!— The Boston Court chose the play for its summer festival. I’m thrilled to have a chance to work on it with actors and director Jessica Kubzansky. We’ll have a public reading on July 28th at 4pm in Pasadena.
DRUNK AT THE BASE OF THE BODHI TREE is a three-person, ninety-minute play about a chance encounter— a hiker discovers an injured woman face down in a ditch— that changes both their lives.
