Saying Yes to WRITING THEATRE

I have always had an identity crisis.  When I was in grad school, all of my professors told me that I should write in TV.  And truthfully, I love that idea.  I have loved television my whole life.  One of my earliest memories was watching a TV show growing up and wanting to be the person who was in charge of saying what was going to happen in the stories.  So I guess one of my earliest instincts was to be a writer, although I had no idea what that meant.  I used to tape TV show theme songs and perform puppet shows for my 3rd and 4th grade class where the puppets would lip sync the theme songs.

But I started writing plays in college because I loved the interaction of writers, directors and actors.  I was a wannabe theatre guy when I got to SCU.  I thought the theatre people were so strange and interesting.  And that's where I wanted to be.  Fortunately, I had several professors who encouraged this in me.  So I wrote plays and went to graduate school and studied writing plays, as well as film and TV. But the theatre world hasn't made me a star yet.  So most of my time post grad school I have felt like a failure.  I've written some wonderful plays in that time.  But since I wanted to be a star and I'm not a star, all I've felt is failure and like I didn't fit in.

I've decided to LET IT GO.  So I'm going to send my plays out like I always do.  And I'm going to write plays like I always do.  Back in February and March, I wrote a play for a writing challenge sponsored by a group I'm involved with called the Playwrights Union.  The challenge was to write a play in a month, which I did.  It was awful.  But the feedback I got was so helpful that I finally wrote the play I was meant to write  in four days.  Then I rewrote and rewrote and did a reading of it in May.  Then my best friend who was in the reading said she wanted to produce it.  YES after YES after YES. So we're working on producing it now.  We're going to do a workshop of it in January, when her schedule frees up.

I wrote a play last year called The Snake Charmer that I love.  But it hasn't been shown much love.  This week I got an email from a theatre called The Inkwell in D.C. that is going to do a reading of a section of the play as a part of a development program they run which I'm a finalist for.  Based on that reading, I'll get some help from a dramaturg to work on the next draft.  Then if that goes well, I'll do a four day intensive workshop in D.C. and if that's cool I'll get a production of it.

I've been submitting both plays to various festivals and development programs like The O'Neill, Sundance Theatre Labs, Portland Center Stage's Just Add Water festival, New Harmony, The Ground Floor at Berkeley Rep, Ojai Playwrights Festival, etc.

I knew I didn't have any plays in me for the rest of the year.  I didn't have any ideas.  I have three TV pilot ideas I am currently in various stages of writing.  So I know that I'll be occupied with that for the rest of the year.

But my friend Tony who just moved back to SF from NYC decided to start a theatre company.  And he kept saying to me that I'm on his "short list" of people to work with.  We had talked about collaborating years ago when he was in NYC.  But nothing came of it.  So now he's got this theatre company that's starting.  He teaches at SCU, so when I went up there I saw him for a few minutes.  We talked about working together.  He eventually sent me an idea he has.  It's an adaptation of a famous play and I like his take on it.  So that will be the play I'll write next year.  I'll take it to next year's writing challenge.  I'm saying YES to writing that play and getting invested in that idea and collaborating with a good friend of mine.  I'm saying YES by reading the original source material and writing up some ideas for my take on it.

And all of a sudden I feel like a playwright again.