What do you do when you’ve written a polarizing play and you’re not sure if it’s doing what you want it to? Here’s one option: I Wrote a Play with a Male Rape, but Readers Didn’t Want to Call it That

  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 […]

  There is no submission fee. Likewise, there is no pay or no prize money.   Have you seen this, this new disclaimer on play submission opportunities? Stated boldly as though there is actually some sort of correlation between not charging a fee and not paying royalties? As if this is so logical that if […]

    Last year, I reviewed my records and did a thorough analysis of the submissions I made and how they paid off: 2014 Submission Recap: You Can’t Argue With Numbers. I could do the same thing again this year, but the point would be the same: you have to submit your work—frequently. So, instead I […]

THIS IS IT! THE END!   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 […]

  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 […]

  Are you shocked?   Not too long ago, I wrote a post called YOU WANT OUR UNPRODUCED TEN-MINUTE PLAYS WHY? that was probably the tip of this iceberg; it expressed frustration, but tried to frame it in a logical approach to ten-minute play submission, one that we could feel good about. I have always […]

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 […]