Playwright Now
Why do we laugh?
I’m part of a writing group that I love called Lab Twenty6.
Collectively, the notes are invariably smart and helpful, but last week I got one that was wrong.
I’m writing a high school one-act called This Is a Text, a spin on a play I wrote a long while ago called This Is a Test.
More…Why are you leaving?
On Super Bowl Sunday I went to see a play. I was seeing it because I knew someone tangentially involved. I’d had my doubts about whether it would be good, so I was alone.
The theatre was about a third full, which meant that I was one of about thirty people in the audience.
As I’d picked up my ticket in the lobby, the ticket taker/vendor/refreshments person had mentioned, almost casually, that there was to be no intermission.
More…The Mammoth in the room
Most playwrights working today have probably had this thought:
“I wonder if I could write a play that was somehow interactive, that used social media in a way that created instant feedback on what was happening onstage.”
There are all sorts of intriguing possibilities:
The audience could Facebook who they think is the murderer in a mystery, and so affect the end: a new-tech version of Ayn Rand’s Night of January 16.
More…A cry in the dark
Up until a week ago, I’m pretty sure I’d never cursed in anger.
Like many people, I’ve used a swear word occasionally as spice, a bit of cardamom in the conversational stew.
But on January 9th, 2012, at about two in the morning, I swore.
I’d written a good chunk of a play. And then lost it.
Damn.
We were on vacation.
I write every day, pretty much no matter what, but vacations are uniquely productive: new settings, new stimuli, ample, relaxed time.
More…Deep blue scene
Over the holiday break, we were in a motorboat, on our way to snorkel, when we came upon a pod of dolphins.
The captain stopped the boat so that we could watch them.
A guidebook I’d read had said not to do that, because it terrorized the dolphins. But they didn’t seem terrorized. They stayed near the boat. Had they left, we wouldn’t have chased them.
Todd made fun of me because I said that I thought the dolphins actually liked having us around, that the ocean must be sort of boring for animals so smart.
More…
