. Coming up on October 1, I have made a full 100 submissions fewer than last year and even of those I’ve made, a whole slew of them were isolated cold queries about specific plays for specific reasons, i.e. not responses to general calls for plays. Without those targeted queries, I’m guessing I’m at about […]

  People have asked my opinion on fees a lot over the years, so here it is, for better or worse, for agreeing or disagreeing.   Play submission fees are on the rise.   Worse–whether it’s the result of economy, copycatting, or emulating the film/fiction/poetry industries–they aren’t going away.   In the wake of my […]

Once again, I offer up the year’s facts and figures in an attempt to inspire you to keep up your submission game.  As with 2014’s Recap: You Can’t Argue With Numbers, 2015’s Review in Numbers, 2016’s Year in Review, and 2017 Year in Review, the goal is to share stats and results of submission, the hows of productions, […]

  I started this blog post about BRILLIANT WORKS OF ART a couple of years ago not knowing how it would end, but hoping it would be as we hope all play journeys end: with production. Writing this post, and anticipating finishing it someday with a great production success, was coping therapy after learning that this play […]

  Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway. This is my actress daughter’s favorite quote, one that’s been adopted by her twin sister—a computer coder/YouTuber—who has it as her computer wallpaper. It’s my favorite now, too.   Never let up […]

  I’ve “known” Jonathan Dorf online for years as a playwright and co-founder of YouthPLAYS, but it wasn’t until I heard him on George Sapio’s Onstage/Offstage podcast that I realized what a marketing guru he is. Naturally, I asked if I could pick his brain about his work and business,  and ask him to share […]

  In my continual quest to prove that submitting does work, I again offer up total transparency in my year’s submission and results. As with 2014’s Recap: You Can’t Argue With Numbers, 2015’s Review in Numbers, and 2016’s Year in Review, the goal is to share numbers, changes, results, and any other information that makes […]

  **Warning** This is a long one… but readers have been asking for it… Be careful what you wish for ????   “My play had a great world premiere, and now I can’t get a second production, because it’s been produced already.”   I hear this a lot, and I address some of the problem […]

  Whether it comes in the form of feedback from a reader, a blog post, or formal newspaper review, harsh words sting. Devastate. Create self-doubt. No less than Teresa Rebeck has talked about how difficult it was for her to recover from a bad review. But in a subjective, collaborative, artistic world, they are going […]

  In my continual quest to prove that submitting does work, I again offer up total transparency in my year’s submission and results. As with 2014’s Recap: You Can’t Argue With Numbers and 2015’s Review in Numbers, the goal is always to show that submitting yields results. More than that, consistency yields momentum, which is […]