I’ve been so busy with RIPP that I haven’t done any of my usual updates about what’s going on with my own stuff.  If you haven’t been following RIPP, I encourage you to check it out. So far, I’ve contacted more than 450 theaters, and responses (or promises to respond) are coming in daily; I expect to be able to continue this series for at least six months, which is better than I thought would be possible.

In the meantime, I’ve had quite a lot going on! I got some great feedback on my new full-length, SAFE, from fellow playwrights at a peer review session last week, so I finished another round of revisions this week and sent it out to a few places I would love to work with. Fingers crossed.  Also, on the full-length front, I got word that THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR will get a fall reading at Stripped Scripts in Santa Barbara, CA. I love it when there is renewed interest in an older script.

Short plays have been exploding! Best Interests took fourth place for the LW Thomas Award at Theatre Oxford in Mississippi.

Cake Top This was produced at Box Wine Theatre in January, and in June, will be produced at Stage Q, The Ringwald, and Subversive Theatre.

Face Time has emerged as a very popular little play, getting produced at Alleyway Theatre and Pennsylvania’s Scituate High School in April, and having scheduled productions at The Mirror Theatre, Durango Arts Center, and M.T. Pockets in June.

You Haven’t Changed a Bit picked up new productions at the Lakeshore Players 9th Annual Ten-Minute Play Contest, the Barn Theatre‘s 2013 Summer Solstice Showcase (where it gets double billing with Two Puzzles Walked Into a Bar), and will be heard on Spokane Radio Theatre on August 11.

The award-winning Life Lines got two new productions at Stage Door Productions‘ Sixth Annual One-Act Festival and Chagrin Valley Little Theatre‘s 10-10. Black and White will be published in the Smith and Kraus Best 10-Minute Plays 2013.

A brand new commission, The Spirit of Buffalo, will be part of Road Less Traveled Productions‘ tenth anniversary Curtain Up! event featuring eight brand new, Buffalo-positive short plays, all commissioned by Buffalo playwrights. For the event, called Buffalo Rises, each playwright is paired with a local artist who creates a piece that will be a backdrop for the production . My Buffalo Spree colleague,  Nancy Parisi, is my partner and I’m so excited about all of this.

Matthew Crehan Higgins and I, as I posted earlier, finished choosing the plays for the second annual BUA Takes 10 at Buffalo United Artists, and we’re finishing up our entry. That goes up in June. And in July, Buffalo Car Plays, featuring plays by Darryl Schneider, Jon Elston, Steve Roylance, and me is an intimate part of the Buffalo Infringement Festival. It’s especially exciting for me, because my daughter will be starring in my play, called The Pee Test.

I think that is everything; I hope you didn’t fall asleep! And through it all, I have the good fortune of continuing to see great theater in Buffalo. Who can complain?

Tomorrow, we’re back to Real Inspiration for Playwrights. It’s a good one…

Donna