Articles written by Michael Bettencourt - Page 5

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About me - Michael Bettencourt

Michael Bettencourt is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His A QUESTION OF COLOR won an Ostrander award in Memphis (TN) for Best Original Script in July 2005. IN THE FORT chosen was a Selected Script by Inner Voices. In 2004 he won Boston Theatre

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Arts & Humanities > Theater & Drama Theatre: What makes it special?: 5 of 22
Politics Is An Egg The Theatre Cannot Hatch I am in a state of dismal about theatre. It is called "The Coast of Utopia." Part I. Of course, Stoppard must be reflexively praised for his attempt - after all, he is "Stoppard," and Stoppard has earned the right to reflexive praise for being "Stoppard" - he hath endured in a busi... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Survival: 13 of 57
ON CROSSING THE STREET At the streetcorner he looks thick and straight, like a man waiting to run the bulls - but his first step off the sanctuary of the curb shows how crippled he is, hips askew, arms arrhythmic, legs swung like bell clappers, all jerk and thrust and ungrace. He moves one step out, then another, feeling the... More..
Creative Writing > Essays Essays: Death of a pet: 11 of 48
KEATS (On The Death Of A Small Dog) Death is like an inside joke: we all know the punchline but we don't want to talk about it for fear of having to face it. Death is not an abstract that can be discoursed about: adolescents do that and tie themselves into knots. "Things" die; there is no concept here, no abstract haze to hi... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Snow: 48 of 207
FIRST SNOW IN THE CITY I Emerson called it a "frolic architecture" but saw it build on barns and woodpiles, swept ponds and fletched evergreens, nothing to cramp its framing of whimsy. Here, snow is a business, like trash pick-up on Tuesday, or street bums hustled to shelters. There are moments, before the plows charge, when... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Joy: 11 of 44
UMBRELLA No, you will not walk alone under an umbrella over dark plains of asphalt pursued by rain. That is not your fate. Those moments can frighten you, make your mortal hinges freeze - but you are prone to only momentary rust, a doubt like dew that settles, then burns off. But those moments! - Every morning I watch four l... More..
Creative Writing > Reflections Reflections: Mourning: 5 of 20
"RAGE, RAGE..." My friend's letters had mentioned the possibility as far back as the fall of last year, but now what had stood merely possible had become painfully probable now: the death of his father. He had come back to Brooklyn from San Francisco each time the alarum had rung: the complaints about vague pains and exhaust... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: A mother's heart: 3 of 12
MOTHER AND CHILD (from a painting by George de Forrest Brush of his wife and child) She is already looking for me when I walk into the gallery, and I go to her without question; but this child's late; the sitting's begun. The painter breaks open her palette, steals her hues for his canvas' debt, his father-hand quick in divi... More..
Sciences > Atmosphere & Weather Why I love each season: 2 of 8
Three Seasons Out Of Four Winter When Shakespeare began Richard III with "Now is the winter of our discontent," he began with the wrong season. Summer is the real season of discontent. Summer has all the disadvantages and none of the benefits of temptation, ratcheting the desires up tight with devilish enticement but never o... More..
Arts & Humanities > Writing Tips Best ways to write a script: 1 of 4
SCRIPT TEASE I have been a long-time volunteer reader for three different theatre festivals and competitions in New York as a way of "paying back" three theatres who have been good to me and my work. Here is the state of script writing, at least in the small slice that came down the sluices, and it falls, Aristotle-like, int... More..
Creative Writing > Poetry Poetry: Boundaries: 1 of 4
BOUNDARY WALLS After that, eventually it all winds down. We won't be bothered when, say, ten percent of the protons go. If we're still around, we may not even notice. But when ninety-nine percent go, you won't have enough left to make a person, and it will be unpleasant. After this point, there's a long period of decline, an... More..