Viva Cheatwood!

I found out recently that a woman I went to high school with has become a playwright. This of course is very exciting for me because it not only means that friends are not only recommending material for me to read, they're actually going out and writing it!

The (I almost wrote 'my'!) playwright is Vicki Caroline Cheatwood. When I knew her in high school, she hadn't started giving the 'Caroline' equal billing. Not that it matters to VCC, but I really like the addition. To me, it sounds strong and artistic, and in my mind's eye, looks damn good on a Broadway marquee.

(Luckily, she's always had that distinctive last name -- I married in and out of names before stumbling onto Bybee, which is also distinctive and would look good -- if not damn good -- out there somewhere.)

Vicki Caroline Cheatwood lives in my favorite suburb (Garland) of my least favorite Texas city (Dallas). And she writes plays! And screenplays! Wow, I still can't believe it. For more than half her life she's been into everything theater. The last time I saw her perform was about 21 years ago at a university near Tulsa. The literature and theatre departments had joined forces and were doing a weekend course on William Faulker. Faulker's nephew, who was an eerie lookalike of the author, was there and gave a talk. Also, Cheatwood has had the pleasure of once sharing a stage with Jay Lewis, who I salivated about a couple of blogs ago.

I'm a little mad at myself for blithely presuming that Vicki Cheatwood was taking an exclusively acting focus. I'm really put out with myself for not noticing that a writer was right there beneath a surface that didn't have to be scratched very hard at all!

I suppose it would be all the same if I'd been in school with Anne Tyler or Stephen King...would I have perceived a fledgling writer? Sigh. Probably not. In high school, we're all giddy and pleased with our own cleverness, and often can't tell where ours leaves off and another's begins.

Visit Vicki Caroline Cheatwood's webpage, http://vickicarolinecheatwood.com and find out more about her career, and check out her picture. It's fabulous. Somehow, she manages to look cool, controlled and artistic all at once!

Vicki, if you read this, send instructions detailing how to get copies of your plays and screenplays. I can think of no better way to begin catching up on what's going on in American theatre.