FLY IN THE OINTMENT

Story by: David White
Recorded: July 2005, Waterford, CT
Music: Vince Guaraldi Trio

A group of disillusioned college kids crash a fancy gala party at the local museum by faking French accents, only to discover, in spectacular fashion, that their success has a darker side.

David M. White teaches Script Analysis, Playwriting, Senior Thesis, and Text Construction as an Associate Professor at Towson University; he also oversees the Towson Theatre Lab, an on campus home for reading and responding to new works in the Towson Department of Theatre Arts.  David is a founding member of Generous Company and has been Artistic Director of WordBRIDGEPlaywrights Laboratory since 2007, nurturing over 30 new plays by emerging playwrights from around the United States with a company of 60+ multidisciplinary artists.  David’s plays have been produced in theatres around the country and he has completed three commissions all of which resulted in production.  David holds his B.A. from New College in Sarasota, Florida; his M.A. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City; and his Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia. His dissertation DEVELOPING PLAYWRIGHT(S) focused on the process of developing new works for the stage.  More about Dave here.

HOW IT HAPPENED

This was the first story I ever recorded as a stand-alone, first-person narrative.  I'd met Dave White the summer I was in residence at the Eugene O'Neill Center in Waterford, CT, where I was workshopping a play.  Dave was the Literary Manager there, and host of regular Monday night gatherings at his house in New London, just down the street.  Over the course of our weeks together I heard more and more about the infamous "French Film Festival Gala Party" incident.  Dave's a funny guy, but this one took the cake, and I knew I had to record it for posterity.  I mixed it in the weeks following the Conference, and 'premiered' it during a roof party somewhere in Brooklyn.  I don't know what possessed me to score it with Vince Guaraldi, given this isn't a Christmas story.  I suppose I just liked the sound of Dave's shenanigans juxtaposed with this really bouncy, sprightly music.  The clash of tones made me chuckle, I guess.