Whole cloth

A possible new layer and perspective for the novella, adding to its richness, has risen from the ashes of past work. Back in the 80s, after I'd left the New Rose Theatre to become playwright-in-residence at Peter Fornara's Cubiculo Theatre, a began working on a quartet of plays I was calling the Quantum Quartet, 4 plays following a pair of young physicists from 1927's Solvay Conf to the present (between plays 2 and 3, one gets a sex change operation). The first, The Sadness of Einstein, was written and scheduled for the Cubiculo. Bob Hicks even wrote a piece on the concept of the quartet. All was well.

And then the honcho of the theater decided he was tired of losing money and closed it. I was homeless again. Amazingly enough, and fortunately, Sadness found a new home quickly in Seattle, to headline a festival at The Empty Space -- but then funding for the festival was lost, so that opportunity crashed, too. The play never has been done, though I published it in The Sadness of Einstein and other plays.

I can easily embrace the thematic center of the quartet in the novella by making a major character a physicist -- and there are 3 candidates, including the wife of the protagonist, which may be the way to go. Exciting -- and more new fine-tuning as a result. I love this "whole cloth" chaotic energy early in the process.