Doug Paulson

Day One:

I landed in Boise Idaho around 4pm yesterday and met up with my car-mates (two good friends from NYC) for the 2-hour drive to McCall for my 3rd Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. The drive is absolutely beautiful with the raging Payette River winding its way down the mountain along side the highway for seventy-five percent of the trip. Driving in the opposite direction of the rushing water made me feel like we were going so much faster than we were. Neat.

The first night here is the meet and greet. The AD of the festival hosts everyone at her cabin for food and drinks. It was great seeing so many familiar faces and meeting all of the new folk. I got my script for the first play I’ll be working on called Faith by James McLinden. I’ll be playing a 12 year-old Jesus freak, wannabe saint-in-training who at one point, gets sports taped up to a light post in a Wal-Mart parking lot, half naked, wearing a 6-pack of beer as a crown. Fantastic. Can’t wait to see how we stage that.

Here’s the kicker…there’s fucking snow on the ground. What?!?!? And here it was already 80 degrees in Brooklyn when I left for the airport at 6am. I now find myself in a bit of a jam…I packed 7 pairs of shorts and only two pairs of jeans, 15 or so t-shirts and just one jacket. A light jacket. On a whim I threw in my favorite American Apparel scarf, more really just for the dramatic fashion statement of wearing it, which I now think may have been my only stroke of genius while packing.

***On a side note, I’m sitting here writing this on the couch of the house I’m staying in (pictures to come) with one of my fellow cast members sitting opposite me who just pointed to the floor and said “Squirrel.” Sure enough, a small chipmunk, as it turns out, was walking through the living room. A chipmunk in the living room. Are you kidding me? How am I supposed to sleep when the should-be-stuffed animals aren’t really stuffed? He could climb into bed with me and…I don’t want to think about it. The director who is also staying here came in from the deck and said, “Oh, is the chipmunk back? I saw him round the same time yesterday. Tell him it’s cast.” I love theater people.***

Stay-tuned…