After completing 10 #PLONY (Playwrights Living Outside New York) interviews with Eric Coble, William Missouri Downs, Lauren Gunderson, Michael McKeever, EM Lewis, Aditi Brennan Kapil, Don Zolidis, Catherine Trieschmann, Topher Payne,  and Tammy Ryan, I summed up the commonalities I observed in the careers of these successful playwrights:   What I Learned from Interviewing […]

    Tammy Ryan born and raised in Astoria, Queens, left to go to college, and, despite having New York roots, officially became a #PLONY when she wrote her first play as a theater major at the University at Buffalo (UB) and had it produced in the back room of Nietzsche’s bar. The Francesca Primus […]

  (If you don’t know what TRADE A PLAY TUESDAY is, please click here to read the guidelines and learn how to participate.)   This week, TRADE A PLAY TUESDAY (TAPT) celebrates its two-year anniversary. Except for a handful of Tuesdays, it has run every single week, and, every single week without fail, playwrights have shown up to trade […]

  Last week, I marveled at how different every #PLONY’s journey has been; make that triple for Topher Payne. You know how when an actor finally breaks through and everybody asks “Where has he been?” and the answer is toiling away, learning his craft, waiting for the moment when his hard work is noticed? That’s […]

Gratitude journals and their more public cousins—gratitude Facebook posts—have become mindful ways to connect with what is good in our lives. I’ve never done one, but it occurred to me a while back that doing a 365 Grateful for playwriting might illuminate a year’s worth of reasons why we’re so loyal to this sometimes discouraging […]

  When I first started the #PLONY interviews, I had this notion that, after a while, they’d all start to sound the same. But eight interviews in, I’ve been consistently amazed at how very different these stories are. Sure, there are commonalities that led to success (and there will be recap post on those once […]

Gratitude journals and their more public cousins—gratitude Facebook posts—have become mindful ways to connect with what is good in our lives. I’ve never done one, but it occurred to me a while back that doing a 365 Grateful for playwriting might illuminate a year’s worth of reasons why we’re so loyal to this sometimes discouraging […]

  I’ve never met Don Zolidis in person, but through interaction on the Official Playwrights of Facebook, I knew he was a #PLONY I wanted to feature. Insanely prolific—he has published 85 YA plays alone—Zolidis has a keen sense of both marketing and the market, and the result is a mind-boggling successful career. Try this […]

 . Aditi Brennan Kapil has a resume full of names equated with playwright excellence: Lark, McKnight, Jerome, Mellon, Bay Area Playwrights Festival, New Dramatists, NNPN, and more. But aside from the voluminous list, what makes Kapil’s achievements all the more remarkable is that when her play, LOVE PERSON, received a 2007/2008 Rolling World Premiere from […]

  Full disclosure: I’ve slept with E. M. Lewis. But long before we triple-bunked at the 2013 Dramatists Guild Conference (she’s the former New Jersey rep), she’d been a role model to me for her work, work ethic, tenacity, success, and—most of all—generosity of time and spirit. These days, she’s busier than ever, and I […]