The One-Eyed Guru

I've decided that my next project will be to adapt my one-act play The One-Eyed Guru into a short story. Generally, my writing tends to fall into one of two camps: a heightened reality/absurdist style or straightforward realism/naturalism. I didn't decide this...it's just how I write. The One-Eyed Guru was, at the time that I wrote it, the most naturalistic play I'd written up until that point, which was still very early in my writing career. I have no idea where the idea for the story came from, but it appeared in my head one day and I wrote it all out. For whatever reason, I never really pushed that play in any marketing sense, though its had several productions and still generates interest from visitors to my website. But I've never really given it the attention that I honestly think it deserves.

Part of that is the onset of the "anything longer than 10-Minutes will not be accepted" trend in one-act festivals that has taken place over the past decade. But, honestly, part of it is my own negligence of that play.

Looking at it now, I realise that it would make a very good candidate for a quick, interesting short story, so that is what I shall do. Roughly ten years after the fact, this play will now get my undivided attention. Currently it runs at about 30 pages (in play script format), though I have no idea how long it'll end up when I've adapted it. So much disappears, so much is added.

By the way, in case you're wondering if I'm looking to adapt most of the 40 or so plays I've written into novel form at some juncture, that's not going to happen. Most of them simply aren't viable possibilities due to the way they're written. But I think that this one is. And I admit there are one or two more that might fit the bill. But that's it. Right now, I've discovered a new way of reinterpreting some of my plays and I'm loving the challenge. It's uncharted territory for me and I'm enjoying the process and experience immensely. Perhaps sometime I'll write a novel from scratch. I'd certainly like to be able to do that. But the truth is, my heart has always been and always will be with the theatre.

In the meantime, I'll continue interloping.