Inspirational

How underrated is local/community theatre? As a writer, it is some of the easiest ways to get inspired. Watched six short plays written by creative writing student sand was thoroughly impressed. Bravo!

Laughing Wild and Baby with the Bathwater

A week ago, I was supposed to go in for an audition for a festival of short plays. In preparation, I had to look for two contrasting monologues, and since I had never auditioned with monologues before (or auditioned much, really), I looked for suggestions. One was this monologue about a baked potato from Christopher Durang’s play called Laughing Wild. The only available copy at the library also included another play, Baby with the Bathwater. I ended up reading Laughing Wild, which was good and so bizarre but funny, and then read Baby with the Bathwater.

I love Baby with the Bathwater. It’s by far the most hilarious play I’ve read; it’s witty, completely insane and ridiculous, and so goddamn funny, I had to stifle my laughter when reading it on the bus and the train. I really do need to read more plays.

Also, I’m trying this new thing out where I’m going to read different genres now, after last year’s Aaron Book Awards, so I don’t end up reading a ton of memoirs or graphic novels, and one children’s book. Speaking of children’s books, Swallows and Amazons should be arriving at the library for me any day now…

Which monologues to audition with?

I have an upcoming audition for a festival of short plays produced by a university (one that I graduated from last year). I am to prepare a monologue or possibly two, depending on time. I’m super stoked, but the only thing is that I’ve never auditioned for a play before (I did audition for a short film a few years ago), and haven’t seen or read too many so I’m not sure how to go about choosing a good monologue. If I had to prepare one, I feel like I should prepare a dramatic monologue over a comedic one.

Any suggestions?

I keep it short

Finding it difficult to write a full-length play. Even when I was in film school, I found it really hard to write and complete my feature screenplays. So much plotting and thinking involved. No, I’m much better as a short film filmmaker, or a short play playwright, or a short story writer. I can tell a story in a scene or two no problem, but a whole thing?

Ugh.

Actually…

So I thought I had to write about 25 pages for my play by tomorrow but I checked the main page of the website for the theatre company, just for fun, and apparently they’ve extended the deadline to April 30th. When I read that, I was hysterical for about a minute in front of my mom, who was seated at the kitchen table across from me. Quite the spectacle.

On the bright side, I wrote a whole bunch of pages today. I think that was the most accomplishing thing I did all day. Besides finding out the actual deadline for the thing.

Slow going

I have to finish writing the last three acts of a four-act play by Tuesday and it’s difficult. I think people have this idea that writers can just sit at a computer and words flow through their fingers on the keyboard, but it’s really not like that at all, at least for me. I have to be in the right mood, in the right setting — but I think most importantly, I have to know what the hell I’m writing about. One reason why this is going so slowly is because I wasn’t sure where the story was going. I knew important plot points but I didn’t necessarily now how these points were connected. Being self-aware about everything finally has its positives though: I realized I needed to map out what I was going to write so I made an outline/beat sheet, which helped. Now it’s just a matter of getting to it and finishing it before Tuesday… wish me luck.

End of Brave New Play Rites

Well, it’s been fun. I caught my play twice, and I’ll be attending the second program tonight for the first time. When I signed up for the class and even when I was told that my play would be produced for the festival, I didn’t really know what that looked like. To me, my play was still words on a page, even when there was a director attached to the project and it was being workshopped. It was really only when I sat there on Wednesday night, after the second play was finished and they began laying down the walls for the house that I had written in my play, that I realized my play was now real. It was when the actors wandered on stage, embodying the words that I written months ago.

I’m just really happy that play was chosen, especially when, at the time, I really didn’t know if it would be or not, since I didn’t feel all that confident about my writing. But as I watched the actors say the lines I had written, as they walked on stage and then off, as the play ended unhappily, I felt confident. I felt like I belonged, that I had worked hard to get to this point, and that my writing was good. I think that’s something I’ve been trying to get over, and it’s been a slow process, but watching my play — and all the other ones in the festival too — has helped with that, for sure.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to dress fancy for the last show and getting drunk at the closing party tonight. Yeeeeaah!