If 2020 was a doozy, 2021 was doozier. In 2020, there was more sense of being in this together, waiting for the vaccine cavalry to deliver us. I know I didn’t predict how chaotic and divisive things would become, the continued uncertainty around theater, or the depression and fatigue plaguing so many of us, especially now as we head into an Omicron-fueled 2022.

In 2020, the pivot to virtual theater kept us going during what we thought would be a temporary break. In 2021, virtual theater still exists, but there doesn’t seem to be much excitement surrounding it because we got a taste of what it was like to be back in the room. We discovered that Zoom is an amazing development platform—and I hope that continues particularly as a tool to democratize and provide more opportunities—but when it comes to performance, there’s no comparison. As a result, I submitted to lots of virtual development opportunities, but no more calls that planned for virtual production. I’m not sure what that will make my 2022 look like but I’m okay with it.

Most of those virtual performance calls were for ten-minute plays and let’s face facts: I’m not writing ten-minute plays anymore outside of commissions. Of the 318 opportunities I’ve submitted in 2021—some with multiple plays—only 41 of those have been for ten-minute plays. That’s only 12 percent, down from last year’s 22 percent, which was down from the previous year’s 37 percent. I see this trend continuing, in part this because so many ten-minute producers want brand new plays—often written specifically for them—which is bullshit, but also because so many are pop-ups or want fees in exchange.

Of those 41, five have so far been chosen for production so that’s not too bad, but given most producers want funny and of-the-moment, this number will continue to decrease over time.  I will always shout about  the important of writing tens, particularly for new playwrights, but after hundreds of productions of three dozen short plays, my ten-minute hat appears to be hung up. An interesting and fitting coda to this is that I taught my first class ever this year: six weeks of how to turn your ten-minute play into a full-length—and it sold out ?.  It’s a bucket list item I’m happy to have checked—teaching, not the sellout.

The flip side of so few ten-minute submissions is that I submitted to a total of 277 full-length opportunities, which is actually up from last year’s 261. I suspect my submission numbers for full-lengths will remain in this range as submission opportunities continue to shrink; the days of submitting to 500 opps a year are gone. But what did that all translate to? I’ll break down the year:

WHAT I REALLY WISH I DID: Started a Pandemic Playwright TikTok back in spring 2020. Blogs are dead, but I do this review as much for myself as any potential readers. (If you’re one of them, thank you!) It helps me set goals for the year.

HIGHLIGHTS: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES had a stellar year; after being an Honorable Mention in the New England Theatre Conference’s Aurand Harris Memorial Playwriting Award in 2020, it was selected for development by Growing Stage, won the Anna Zornio Memorial Playwriting Contest (production included!), and was published by YouthPLAYS.

FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, my new female buddy comedy that I wrote at a rate of three pages a week during lockdown, posting commentary on my process to my blog, was a surprise hit! It was a semifinalist at Garry Marshall New Works Festival and Athena Plays in Progress, got readings at Bechdel Group, Create Theatre, Beverly Arts Center, and Clamour Theatre, and won a 29-hour workshop as a selected play for the inaugural Finstrom Festival at Zoetic Stage in Miami! Director Stuart Meltzer and his team skillfully guided it to an even funnier place, so if you want to read a comedy featuring two women over 35, check this one out!

CANCELLATIONS: I’ll reiterate my sentiment from last year that I remain grateful for the privilege of being able to prioritize health and safety and have utmost respect and gratitude for those who facing stress and grief throughout this crisis. Any opportunities I lost are nothing in the face of that, so I’m not going to dwell on them.

That said, TEACH had been invited to the International Women’s Playwrights Conference in Montreal in June 2020; it was postponed to June 2021, then planned virtually, and finally had participation canceled altogether. The HBMG Screenwriting for Playwrights Fellowship I’d been accepted into in June 2020 has yet to be rescheduled.

PRODUCTIONS/TRAVEL: Not surprisingly, not a great year for production or travel, but SONS & LOVERS had an amazing live showing at Evolution in Ohio, TEACH had a wonderful workshop production in New York City (and I went! And saw theater friends!), and the solo show that Hunter Foster developed last December, THE CROSSWORD PLAY (Or Ezmeranda’s Gift), went to the Solo Flights Festival at Theatre Aspen where I spent a glorious week rehearsing, taking in the beauty, seeing seven solo shows (including Sarah Stiles’ incredible performance in my own), forgetting about COVID, and feeling the most uplifted I had in a year. It was a hopeful time when the return of theater seemed imminent.

My LITTLE WOMEN…NOW world premiere at Road Less Traveled Productions was postponed to April/May 2022 and my fingers are firmly crossed. Meanwhile, this year, it was a semifinalist in the Lanford Wilson New American Plays contest and was in some great company on the 2020 Kilroys List.

READINGS/PUBLICATIONS: Not too bad here, given the year. BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART had a bit of a resurgence with an amazing—live!—reading at BoHo in Chicago, another at Angels Theatre Company in Lincoln, NE, and winning the Southwest Theater Playwrights Competition, reading pending. Would somebody please produce this Kilroys List play with 46 National New Play Exchange recommendations??

THE CROSSWORD PLAY (Or Ezmeranda’s Gift) had a virtual reading at Zoetic Stage in Miami. CHRISTMAS 2.0 got a reading at Tyler Civic Center and was published by Next Stage Press. Several monologues were chosen for anthologies from Smith & Kraus and Applause. My most-produced ten-minute play, “You Haven’t Changed A Bit” was published by Applause as well.

PAST MIDNIGHT: A Visit With Larry and Viv had a reading with Femme Fatale and a reading and massive development with Palm Beach Dramaworks; it’s now part of PBD’s New Year New Plays Festival.

INCOME: Again, not bad given the circumstances and up from 2020, which is encouraging. That said, the bulk of it came from contest reading, script analysis, and teaching (I’m a real playwright, yay!), though I did manage nearly $2000 in royalties despite everything and the total for the year was several thousand higher than last year. (I also made nearly $5000 making private-client crossword puzzles, which was a pleasant and welcome surprise!)

WRITING: Not as productive as 2020 in part because it was a heavy year of revising, and rewriting takes as much time as writing. After two workshops, THE CROSSWORD PLAY got a lot of revision, as did FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS. ACT LIKE IT’S CHRISTMAS, the Hallmark-style screenplay I wrote last year, also went through several iterations.

Nonetheless, I managed to create my minimum two new plays for the year. THE LAZARUS CLUB is a comedy I finished during the Dramatists Guild End of Play and have submitted to 24 opportunities so far. And because I still believe solo shows are going to be prominent at least for a couple more years, I wrote another one called MABEL TALKS, about the cancellation of silent film star Mabel Normand.

And I did start my adaptation and have about 30 pages so not so bad. It wasn’t quite the goal-hitting I’d expected but things opened up for a minute in 2021, which meant not as much lockdown writing time. I did, however, do a LOT of reading in 2021 of not just plays and research material. I really enjoyed that.

UPCOMING: In addition to the Palm Beach Dramaworks reading of PAST MIDNIGHT in February, I have a reading of BEST LAID PLAN(t)S at Second Generation Theatre in April. I’m still hoping that production of LITTLE WOMEN… NOW happens in April/May and the Anna Zornio-winning ANNE OF GREEN GABLES is scheduled to open the University of New Hampshire Theatre and Dance season in October. I’ve also had exciting inquiries about THE CROSSWORD PLAY for June; fingers crossed!

In February, my ten-minute play “Best Interests,” will be filmed by SHE Films Media as a short called “Piece of Cake.” I’m really looking forward to this and it dovetails well with my increased interest in screenwriting. While I didn’t write any new screenplays in 2021, I did develop several ideas for additional holiday scripts prompted by considerable interest in ACT LIKE IT’S CHRISTMAS. I plan to develop two of these in the coming year as well as a theater-specific pitch and a new commission—all of which fit into my overall plan to become more intentional about the things I write.

And we’re still house hunting as we try to move into the city of Buffalo. I hope a move is something that happens in 2022.

How was your year?

(Click on the home page to read about my plays!)

–Please follow me on Twitter @donnahoke or like me on Facebook at Donna Hoke, Playwright.

–Read my plays and recommendations on the New Play Exchange!

–Playwrights, remember to explore the Real Inspiration For Playwrights Project, a 52-post series of wonderful advice from Literary Managers and Artistic Directors on getting your plays produced. Click RIPP at the upper right.

–To read #PLONY (Playwrights Living Outside New York) interviews, click here or #PLONY in the category listing at upper right.

–To read the #365gratefulplaywright series, click here or the category listing at upper right.

–For more #AHAinTheater posts, click here or the category listing at upper right.

(Click on the home page to read about my plays!)

–Please follow me on Twitter @donnahoke or like me on Facebook at Donna Hoke, Playwright.

–Read my plays and recommendations on the New Play Exchange!

–Playwrights, remember to explore the Real Inspiration For Playwrights Project, a 52-post series of wonderful advice from Literary Managers and Artistic Directors on getting your plays produced. Click RIPP at the upper right.

–To read #PLONY (Playwrights Living Outside New York) interviews, click here or #PLONY in the category listing at upper right.

–To read the #365gratefulplaywright series, click here or the category listing at upper right.

–For more #AHAinTheater posts, click here or the category listing at upper right.