The Tennessee Stage Company has a New Play Festival every year, where it features six-ten new plays each winter. ONLINE FIGHTING was originally a ~twenty-minute stand-alone piece in 2008, but when I submitted it in 2010 they requested I turn the piece into a full two-act play. One drunken summer later, the deed was done and has been totally worth it; they have since featured it as a table-reading in 2011 and as a stage-reading with record-breaking attendance on Superbowl Sunday earlier this year...
...and now, it's returning to the festival one more time to headline with a full production for three weekends. =)
If you're not familiar with ONLINE FIGHTING, it's an action-comedy about two video gamers rekindling a feud. What starts off as fun and games online quickly becomes a battle of jealousy and redemption offline -- especially once loved ones are involved. Though it's been widely enjoyed by people of all ages and demographics so far, I have one review that should give it some special gamer-cred:
That was pretty cool. Thanks for sharing. :) --SBAllen
I also have linkage to check out the play now if you can't wait until next March!
Two-act stage-reading from TSC's New Play Festival in February, 2012:
Original's first full production from Wild thyme Players' "Duels and Desserts" in September, 2011 (where I co-direct and perform):
Board 8's had a special place in my heart for a long time, and knowing many of you helped read and critique ONLINE FIGHTING along the way has meant a lot. Thanks guys -- I'll be keeping you in touch about the future of the play from here, as always. The next piece of news I'm waiting to hear back on about, for example, is how we can best incorporate the charity Child's Play for this production! Let's see where we go from here.....
(nominate Epona)
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
The first link's two acts total around an hour and a half while the second link's video is ~eighteen minutes. Enjoy either of them whenever you get the time!
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
I have not, but I just left a development-meeting to discuss who all we could interest in the piece. Tourney-communities would be an excellent direction, yes, especially since a game-tournament is portrayed in the second act...but I don't know fighter-tourneys well. I think EVO's a pretty big one, too...?
Other businesses of interest (besides Child's Play and local hospitals if CP gets on-board) would be game companies and reviewers. Nintendo, Valve, and Capcom each have various references through-out the play, so maybe they would be interested. If I find the right reviewer, it could potentially get some national articles as well; agasonex seemed to have a similar success with Chester.
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
Woo! I'm glad you kept bumping this. I've been a huge fan of it since you first e-mailed copies to us all those years ago. Really happy to see it doing so well. Keep us posted on how it goes pls ^_^
Massive spoilers for ONLINE FIGHTING in this post.
Also I re-read the script that you send out last year since it's been awhile.
I forgot how much Lucas bothered me <__<''
Like, I just have such a difficult time rooting for the guy.
Yeah, Josh was despicable too, especially early on, but Lucas' first instinct is to slander him to the girlfriend? You shouldn't be able to win the day by initially causing drama with full on lies.
Especially since he (lucas) was a good part of the reason she left. Maybe 50% Lucas for being a thoughtless idiot and hurting her. 20% Josh for being an opportunistic ******* and 30% Anna for being the kind of girl who would leave her boyfriend for an opportunistic *******?
Don't get me wrong, the play is hilarious and the story is still compelling, but both of the main characters come off as complete heels to me and the leading lady doesn't seem like much of a catch anyways. She dated Josh for 3 years and she's going leave him because her EX BOYFRIEND says that he cheated. And then when she finds out that he was LYING about the cheating she's still going to get back with her Ex?
Lucas' mom is the only main character who remotely resembles a good person and she tried to go in a date with her son's ex-best-friend. <_<
I hate every main character in the play, personally, so I'm glad it comes across to others AND remains compelling; it reminds me of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia in that regard. If s*** is going down between two people, sometimes it's best not to be too immediately invested in either person! Lucas is the protagonist by virtue of having no other more admirable characters around him. He felt wronged and picked on even three years after the fact, so he made a bad choice early in the narrative that shouldn't be defended...but despite that, he also grew the most of any major character by apologizing for his mistakes and redeeming his previous loss that held him back for so long. You can see Josh fall back into the same trap Lucas grew out of by the end of the play, but they're quite similar douches outside of how they recover from their mistakes. I don't like to think there's a clear protagonist/antagonist, but the differences between how they handle their losses are probably enough to choose your side accordingly.
Anna also no longer accepts Lucas AS easily...in that she now only asks him to find her online before he wins the championship instead of meeting him for dinner after he wins it all. I also built some more tension around her and Josh's relationship in how he doesn't play games with her like she once did with Lucas. Anna's always been the toughest challenge about this two-act version of the play because I couldn't seem to make her remain the same character between acts, but by changing the timing of her last scene she's begun to make more sense.
I'd be glad to send you the most recent version of the play if you'd like to see those differences for yourself; I think they fix a lot of issues from the recent stage-reading and almost make the show complete. =)
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
Now might also be a good time to mention I completed my next play earlier this week! If you'd like to read it (which is purposefully a study of the humor in more offensive subject matter), leave your e-mail address and I'll be glad to send it to you.
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
Way to go man. I'm acting in a few local productions down here in Tampa these days. Maybe one day I'll be in one of yours.
If you specialize in stage-combat even a little bit, I encourage it -- the original piece was intended to be a fighter-showcase before it better became a true two-act story.
Wanglicious posted...
i have the strange desire to nominate a horse. must be gas.
It's more than gas.
PS -- I'll be in NYC in early July if all goes according to plan! If you're still in NYC, let's keep in touch.
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.
Okay, I wasn't going to bump this any more, but I made a promo-video for hyping ONLINE FIGHTING; my hope is to better catch the eyes of charities, game companies, reviewers, and gaming communities with roughly four minutes of footage. The link's below:
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http://img812.imageshack.us/img812/3492/eponaharr.jpg Nominate SuperNiceDog's Guru-choice, then Epona.