My theatre company is producing my one-act play, Eternity in the Hearts of Men, November 18-20 at the Atlantis Playmakers Theater in Burlington, MA.

Eternity premiered this past Spring in New Orleans. I'm using this second production as an opportunity to do some major rewriting, and I'm learning new things in the process.

Poster from the New Orleans production.
My name is spelled all kinds of wrong.

My friend Bee called me about a year ago asking me to write her a one-act play with four or fewer characters. In 24 hours or less. Fortunately, I had an outline for a sci-fi play in the works. It wasn't quite ready to go to pages yet, but I try to take any opportunity that comes my way. So I pulled an all-nighter writing what ended up being my favorite thing I've ever written.

The way this script came to be is important to my recent rewriting. I wrote it so fast that I pretty much only had time to hit the major story beats and keep moving. The result was a fast-paced story, told in eight short scenes.

There's a lot of good in the script, but I think it's main weakness is that I wasn't able to take enough time with the characters. It's story-story-story right out of the gate, with quick scene transitions that feel more cinematic than theatrical. I'm trying to slow things down a tad, lengthen the script overall, and give the characters more time to be characters.

At first I wasn't sure how to go about messing with the script. I didn't want to just wedge irrelevant scenes into such a tight, plot-driven piece. I found the answer where I find the answers to all life's questions: TV.

In the past year I've taken an interest in TV writing, and looking at the script with TV writer eyes has really helped. I've sort of asked myself, if this were a TV series, and the end of the play was the end of the season, what other episodes might there be? What conflicts can be explored between these characters? What else is at play here?

A good TV show will have a major arc for the whole season, but is allowed to go on little tangents that aren't strictly necessary to the big plot points. My hope is that by thinking in this way, I'll be able to avoid writing new pointless scenes, but instead write scenes that expand the world of the play. I'm trying to tell a bigger story, not the same story with some new bits glued on.

Think of it this way. The plot is horizontal. The characters are moving along from point A (inciting incident) to point B (resolution). I'm not adding length to the horizontal axis. I'm trying to explore the untapped vertical axis - what's going on with the characters all along the way.

This may not work out at all, but I'm totally digging it right now.

Pilots, Part Nine: Dick Wolf's Makeover

Twenty-two pilots viewed and reviewed in one month! What a ride it's been. Today I bring you the final chapter of my September 2010 TV coverage with NBC's

Law & Order: Los Angeles

Law & Order: Los Angeles follows the same format as the original Law & Order, but with a change of address.



(Two pictures this time because I wanted to give you two angles on the woman in red with the big hair. What a distracting extra for a courtroom scene!)

The Law & Order franchise got itself a little face-lift. The first change you'll notice is the absence of the "In the criminal justice system..." opener. I miss it already. Fortunately every scene is still preceded by an address and the Law & Order bonk-bonk sound.

The pilot was maybe a little too in-your-face about the Los Angeles setting. The original is very New York, so I expected Los Angeles to have a similar sense of place. I think there might have been more subtle ways to do this than to have the first crime be about burglars robbing celebrities. The episode featured paparazzi and reality tv and even a mention of Perez Hilton. Okay, I get it. We're not in New York anymore.

Other than the change of scene, this Law & Order doesn't offer any other new bells or whistles. When Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent premiered, I was totally on board because they were clearly something different from the original series. Los Angeles doesn't really feel different enough for me to sit up and take notice.

Bottom line, Law & Order is a strong franchise, but an old one. Don't we deserve something a little fresher?