Well… it’s been a long time since I’ve written a RIPP post. (If you don’t know what RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project is about, please click here (the original idea) and here (the evolution of that idea) to get some context before reading.)   Part of the reason it’s been so long is that I’ve been super […]

  It has been six months since I launched TRADE A PLAY TUESDAY (TAPT); I almost can’t believe it’s been that long, but sure enough, the date on the original guidelines post is January 14.  For those who don’t know, TAPT is a simple, one-to-one, give-and-take feedback system for short plays and scenes; in short, […]

  I’ve been thinking a lot about goal setting, something achievers swear by and life coaches encourage and everybody from athletes to business tycoons practice: determining what you want and the steps it might take to get there. Without goals, you can feel like you’re working hard and never getting anywhere.  Every journey has a […]

   From DEE JAE COX, CO-FOUNDER/PRESIDENT/ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S THEATRE PROJECT   ( If you don’t know what RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project is about, please click here (the original idea) and here (the evolution of that idea) to get some context before reading.)   “I’m sure you know the statistics, only 20 percent of plays that do […]

    “I used to be really into (fill in the blank).” That’s something I can say about a lot of things in my life—photography, running as a preferred form of exercise, making my own greeting cards, film seminars, a certain lecture series, chicken wings.  You probably have a similar list. And if we examine […]

    If you don’t know what RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project is about, please click here (the original idea) and here (the evolution of that idea) to get some context before reading.   From DEEN KEEGAN, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR. SOCIETY HILL PLAYHOUSE   “Over the past several years, the new plays we’ve done have each come in […]

    A few weeks ago, I wrote about keeping perspective on your work in the spring months, when we get more than the usual amount of letters about how our work is not quite right for this production or that prize. It’s particularly difficult with the growing number of “rejection by announcement” notifications, the […]

    If fall is submission season, then spring inevitably becomes rejection season, as conferences and festivals fill their slots, and theaters choose their upcoming lineups.  It can be a discouraging time, as any playwright who plays the submission game knows, and the hardest thing about it can be remaining positive about the merits of […]

    If you don’t know what RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project is about, please click here to get some context before reading.   From PATRICK DOOLEY, FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SHOTGUN PLAYERS   “What playwrights and directors need to do is find each other. Directors come to me and say ‘I want to direct for you,’ […]

  If you don’t know what RIPP: Real Inspiration for Playwrights Project is about, please click here to get some context before reading.   From JUNE BALLINGER, EXECUTIVE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, PASSAGE THEATRE COMPANY   “We actually just changed our submission process [Passage no longer accepts unsolicited submissions] as we get so many submissions, we simply do not […]