A tear came to my eye as I looked at the last post on StephenGregory.blogspot.com. Buddha was going through the last year of his life and was still alive when I last wrote. Our beloved Buddha passed away in his sleep in between us in December of 2015.
He fought very valiantly to the end and died, of course, on the actor day off...Monday. We were lost and devastated for a very long time, and still have moments where it hits us. He was cremated, and his ashes are with us in the living room, where he spent most of his time contented to sit and listen to us write music together. The house was too quiet and empty and we could no longer stand life without a pug. So we got two.
(L to R) Lord Byron and Edgar Allan Pug came to us in 2016, and our house has been a zoo ever since. A VERY FUN zoo. A pug zoo, if you will. Lots of snorts and farts. Great stuff.
We also lost my beloved Grandmother this past Fall. We were able to go to PA for a visit the summer before she passed, and I'm so thankful I got to spend some time with her before we lost her. I am also very grateful Matt thought to take a picture of us together. Rest in peace, Velma.
I have been devoting much of my writing time to the mammoth five year Bold New Works for Intimate Stages Initiative at Creative Cauldron in Falls Church. We were challenged to write five new musicals in five years, and have just completed our fourth. I covered "The Turn of the Screw" in past blogs, and spoke of our next project "Monsters of the Villa Diodati" which had not been written yet.
It finally got written, as did our third piece, "Kaleidoscope", and our fourth, "Witch". Along with another show that we wrote with Ally Currin for Signature Theatre, "Silver Belles". We have already started our fifth show for the Bold New Works, titled "On Air". It highlights moments of American culture from the 1920's to today all tied together by what was playing on the radio.
As for the tone of this blog, I will try not to make it an infomercial for our work, but to keep it about our work, and our lives together. (With some cute pug pictures thrown in for good measure.)
Through focusing the blog in this lense, it will help me devote more time to it. Our writing has taken considerable focus to our lives, and we are doubling down on keeping our new works afloat after they close here in DC. Our "Silver Belles" was picked up by Broadway Licensing, and Creative Cauldron will be developing a leasing arm to lease out all five Bold New Works to other theatres across the country.
So welcome back, and you can always troll my old adventures in blog-world over at the old Stephen Gregory Blogspot Page. Thanks for coming with us on our journey!
SGS/MJC
