Week Seven will not quit

So, I mentioned before that I was going to submit revised versions of Weeks One and Seven to this year's Boston Theater Marathon. 

Then, unbeknownst to you, I submitted those same plays to the Hovey Summer Shorts Festival and to one other festival I haven't heard from yet. 

Well, Week Seven's play made it into Hovey aaaaand...

That same play, The Interview, will also be appearing in the fifteenth annual Boston Theater Marathon! 

I really cannot overstate what an accomplishment this is for me. Since I first learned about the BTM in an intro to playwrighting class at Emerson College (...eleven years ago...), it has been a major goal of mine to get something I had written included in the lineup. And to that end, I wrote a decently okay play and slavishly tweaked, submitted, retweaked, and resubmitted that same play several times, each time receiving the flattering rejection note. (I assume there is a version of that letter that is less effusive. Maybe they're all flattering...)

The truth is, I don't really know what that play was about. It was called Dating Athena—smarmy business guy has several bad dates with the Greek goddess. It had an ambiguous ending I thought to be "theatrical" but did not mean anything to me. I just wanted to see my work on stage. Any work. 

The Interview does mean something to me... and in fact, I was worried that it was in some ways too literal, too earnest. But that's my style, and if the work feels disingenuous to me it'll show to others. Thanks in large part to this blog, I'm trying to be less precious and more direct with my writing these days, and I think that's why this particular play is responding with people: I've stopped trying to be clever and started trying to be me.

I can't wait to see what the director and actors bring to it.

Week Twelve: When I decided to burn the candle at both ends...

 

Well, I have no idea what to do with this, but it turns out to be an eerily relevant prompt for me right now!

Thank you for sticking with the blog through my haitus (and if you didn't, well... screw you). I was neck deep in the research and writing of a nonfiction book for Hallmark. I've done a few of these before (here's one; they presently go from 40 to 70) but never when I also had a full-time job, a part-time job, a girlfriend, and a blog.

"Roasting the candle" would perhaps be an apt description of the experience. But I survived! The rough draft is with my editor, I gave my two-week notice at my part-time job, and now I'm yours all yours. (My girlfriend may have some claim... I will check and then get back to you.) 

I'm still buzzing from the surprise of one of my short plays being chosen for this summer's Hovey Summer Shorts Festival. I was truly overwhelmed by the response I got from Week Five's story, but this felt like I must really be on to something with the blog.

And so I'm going to start making it a priority not only to churn through one of these prompts every week, but also to be constantly revising and submitting the work as we go. Stay tuned...!

But for now, we return to the blank page. What to write?

Week Seven: Live on Stage!

Just a quick post to let y'all know that a revised version of Week Seven's short play will be appearing in this year's Hovey Summer Shorts Festival! [Here's an article about last year's show.] 

As I wrote in Week Seven's reflections, growing up a bit has helped my writing quite a lot. Being accepted into a festival such as this was my holy grail toward the end of college, but in truth I wasn't ready. At that time, writing was about the end result, not the process. Hence the procrastination. Hence the reluctance to start something new when the last thing I wrote didn't earn the accolates I craved.

Now it's all (okay, mostly all) about the process. Which is exactly where I'm supposed to be.

Huge thanks to everyone who read and enjoyed Week Seven or any of these weekly challenges—your continued interest is the reason I received the exciting email I did this morning.