When it's not working...

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Let it cook.

Some plays just need to simmer longer.

What?

What the heck does that mean?

Sometimes you are just not ready to complete it.

It hasn't perked enough in your creative unconscious.

The story is somehow incomplete in you.

So you just need to leave it alone and start work on something else.

Then, maybe in a week, or two, the idea or inspiration will hit you like lightning, and wham, bam, boom, you will get back to your play in a whirlwind of creativity and it will be awesome! 

Like a fine wine, you let it ferment, grow richer, fuller, layered.

You let it cook.

The creative spark is moody, unpredictable and hard to tame. (There are ways to set up a “context” for creativity to blossom - I talk about that in my How to Write a Fantastic Play in 28 Days Seminar Home Study Edition - see below.) And when creativity ignites, you need to stay with it, let it channel it's magic, and write, write, write, and when it REALLY dries up, acknowledge what is, leave it alone, put it under a hot rock somewhere, and let it cook. 

Let it simmer.

Trust it will ripen with time without your attention.

This is one of the hardest things for most writers to do, but from working with a myriad of playwrights, this is such an important skill for every writer to learn!

It is ok to stop work on a project for a while if it isn't happening. (Just don’t make it too long.)

When I work with my Playwriting Coaching clients, setting the play aside to let it cook is absolutely unfathonable. But sometimes, after brainstorming, mindstorming, playing with the concept of the play, rewriting scenes and more, a writer sometimes needs a break to allow their unconscious mind time to find the answer. My clients are paying me to help them craft their story, and they go bonkers when I suggest that they leave it alone for a week and we will go from there.

"Help me make this happen!" they cry, and I reply,

"I am. Just let it cook for a bit."

You see, you can't make a flower blossom. 

You can't make gravy before the Turkey is done. 

You can't squeeze inspiration out of a blank sheet of paper or a blank computer screen.

If the well is dry, don't try to drink. 

Find another well to hydrate your imagination for a bit while your creative unconscious does its magic.

Let it cook.

Click on the image above for more info & to register!

Click on the image above for more info & to register!

Pandemic Writer's Malaise?

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The other night, we had our second Playwright Mastermind Meeting this Fall, and it was curious, for most of the group, and myself included, were feeling this strange Pandemic Writer’s Malaise. A few had written some pages and gotten some work done, but many were so caught up in the Election and all that is happening with the spiking numbers of this pandemic, that the page count was very low.

So we took some time to talk about it, to express our concerns and our fears, and soon this stange Pandemic Writer’s Malaise lifted, and we got back to looking at the bigger picture and the smaller picture of being a playwright and creator in this Brave New World.

The challenge is to keep your vision clear, in a world where there is very poor visibility of the future. And that’s hard. Real hard.

In the past, we based our decisions and our motivation on what we saw was possible in our vision of the future, but now that the future is clouded in the unknown, many of us, after 8 months of this unexpected and challenging new environment, feel are actions are fruitless.

So what can we do?

Talk about it.

Find anyone who is willing to listen and just vent. Don’t worry about finding solutions or anything at all, just express your bottle-necked feelings. Let them out of your brain, you body, and your focus. Just talk about all you are feeling.

Journal about it.

Julia Cameron, in her wildly best-selling book, THE ARTIST’S WAY, recommends writing at least 3 pages of “stream of consciousness” every morning with a pad and a pen. Just write whatever comes out when you bring your pen to paper. I did this years ago, when I was going through a hard time, and it is remarkable. You empty out your fears, your pain, your sadness, your rage, and all your concerns about the day on to the page, and when done, often you are very very clear, and able to focus like never before on your creative projects. Julia calls them the MORNING PAGES. They are a powerful tool that allows you to get focused and back to work on what is important!

And this is my favorite:

Write about it.

My favorite way of getting “problems” out of my mind is to write about them, as specifically as possible. Most of my early plays are about situations from real life, that made me angry or upset, and I simply took these real life situations and found a new context, changed the names, and brought my life experience to the page, and then to life on the stage. Writing like this is a profound and powerful experience which absolutely helps one heal, and you have a great play when you are done too.

Just recently, I was feeling really frustrated with this pandemic and how people are responding to it. I decided to write a short 10 minute screenplay, about a guy, who is so angry about everything and he just can’t deal, so he starts making little videos on his phone to talk with his deceased father. I just recently filmed it, and I will release it in the next couple of weeks once it is edited, but just this process of telling this story has shifted my personal perspective, and my possibilities as a playwright/creator.

And most importantly, I feel better.

Stories have an incredible power to heal others, and strangely enough, ourselves.

Choose today, right now, not to let Pandemic Writer’s Malaise stop you from fulfilling your mission on this planet.

It’s time to write. It’s time to create.

My 7 Most Profound Writing Tips

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Just this weekend, I decided to check out my own Podcast, The Playwriting Podcast, to see what I could learn. (What? I recorded it? LEARN?) AND what I found was really interesting.

I saw playwriting tips that I currently use and I saw some tips which I currently avoid, which are actually super useful. So just for fun, I thought I would go back and list my 7 most profound writing tips, the tips which truly make a difference for me in my writing process.

Here we go:

1. WRITE WRITE WRITE, WAIT WAIT, MAYBE SLEEP, THEN EDIT.

Writing and editing are two different things. My best practice is to write and then sleep and then edit. I write, then take some time away from writing and go back fresh with a new brain and I edit. This is my most profound writing practice. Been doing it for years and it works.

2. MAKE A PLAN.

Plot out your play with EVENTS that happen in each scene, with things that happen on stage. Yes, take the time to make an outline with action and events from the beginning of your play to the end. Know in advance what you are going to write, and your writing will flow like never before.

When you have a plan, you don't fall down rabbit holes and get lost in undirected creativity, and you complete your first draft infinitely faster. There is nothing wrong with undirected creativity, but it may take you a lot longer to complete your play, if you complete it at all.

But once you get your ideas and plot outlined with clear dramatic action and events happening in every scene, writing your play becomes incredibly easy.

So make a plan, a map of your play with EVENTS and CLEAR DRAMATIC ACTION. This really works.

3. KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS.

Write about people you know, people in your life, just change the names or the occupation, or the context. When you make your characters people you know the dialogue flows like never before for you know your characters!

4. GET OFF YOUR COMPUTER AND WRITE ON REAL PAPER.

There is something amazing about writing by hand, especially when you feel stuck. There is some sort of physical connection - hand to brain to creative consciousness that often jump starts your creativity. So bag the computer when the creative flow dries up, and try writing by hand with pen and paper.

5. USE TECHNOLOGY TO WRITE EVERYWHERE.

Write on your PHONE. Dictate your play into your PHONE and watch it magically type for you. Write in short intervals on the Subway on your PHONE or IPAD, or when you have 10 minutes in a coffee shop. Know that you can ALWAYS “imput” your play where it will be safe and saved (If you use Icloud or Dropbox) wherever you are. I have written full length plays in 10 minute intervals on my Phone. It is awesome.

6. WHEN YOU FEEL STUCK WITH "WRITER'S BLOCK"... RESEARCH!

When you feel like the words are not flowing on the page, take your writing time and research your play during that time. Research info on the setting, the time period, the genre. Watch movies that relate to what you are writing. See and read other plays of the same genre that are set in the same time period, or location. Become a sponge of information about the world of your play. And when you get back to writing, you will be surprised what manifests.

7. BELIEVE IN YOURSELF AND YOUR INNATE CREATIVITY.

Get out of your own way. Make the choice to believe that you have a unique voice and can write an amazing play. Stop listening to the negative voices in your head, and focus on that still strong voice inside your heart, that KNOWS you are a great writer. 

AND GET TO WORK!!

Need some help?

You Have To Kill Your Darlings!

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So we have all been there.  

You are writing, and this amazing, lyrical, poetic, gorgeous writing spews forth from your consciousness, and you are excited out of your mind how you have created such amazing work! You feel like you are the writer you always believed yourself to be! Your time has come!

"Oh my God, I am a genius!"

So as you continue writing your play, you keep referring back to this amazing, lyrical, poetic, gorgeous writing, hoping it will give you inspiration to continue to write amazing, lyrical, poetic, gorgeous dialogue, characters and more! You love these pages so much. They are the essence of who you are as a playwright. You hope that reading these pages over again will give you more divine inspiration to continue to be the writer you always believed yourself to be.

Ay, there's the rub.

When I was writing THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS, my one man show about how I developed PTSD and more from training in Yoga, I had a number of pages, passages, narrations that I thought were profound. They were amazing, lyrical, poetic, and gorgeous! I loved them them so much!! In my mind, they were the essence of the best that I can write.

But as we got into production of THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS, I realized that in order for the show to work, it needed to race faster and faster towards it's dramatic conclusion, and it needed to run under 90 minutes.  Much of my amazing, lyrical, poetic, gorgeous writing was in the latter half of my play... 

So, with great pain..... I CUT MOST OF IT.

I cut my best writing right out of my play!

Why? Because it didn't fit into the overall through line, pacing and direction of the PRODUCTION!

You always have to go back to the fact that your play is written to be ALIVE! And in that aliveness, there are some elements like pacing, through line and run time that don't apply or don't show up on paper.

Theatre is alive, and you need to be consciously aware of that as you are writing.

Sometimes in order to produce a great play, you need to KILL YOUR DARLINGS - those pages which you love that don't serve the overall production.  

And it hurts.  

It hurts bad.

But when you get a review like this, it makes it feel a whole lot better!

“THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS is one of the most extraordinary pieces of theatre I have seen on or Off-Broadway in years. Mr. Wolf’s script is nearly flawless in its eloquence and is one of those rare pieces of work that reminds us of our common humanity. Mr. Wolf’s one-man performance is exquisite, inspiring, courageous and beautifully constructed. I laughed even as I was moved to tears. See THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS soon. Because you will want to see it again.”

- Lise Avery, Anything Goes!!  Internationally Syndicated Radio - 

But my PRETTY DARLINGS weren't lost to the world. I did something fun to save them.

After the first production of THE PEOPLE IN MY HIPS, I took the play, and put all of the cut passages and pages I loved back into it, and turned it into a self-published book! And people loved it!

In story-telling of any kind, you have to remember that plays are different from short stories which are different from novels.

If you are developing a play, when in production develop the courage, if necessary, to KILL YOUR DARLINGS!

And your play will ROCK!

Writing a 10 Minute Play!

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So 10 minute plays are in!  There are a myriad of theatres that are hosting 10 minute play festivals or 10 minute play competitions, and it is a great way to get your work out there and have some awesome theatrical fun without spending a lot of time and money.

But you have to realized that the 10 minute play is very different from your average One Act or Full-Length play. And because 10 minute plays are different, you can actually do things with a 10 minute play that you can't do with a longer play.

So what is the difference?

This is a no-brainer:  THE 10 MINUTE PLAY IS SHORTER.  

It is 10 minutes.
You have very little time to develop your characters.
You have no time for back story.
And you have very little time to set up and develop your storyline.

And because your 10 minute play is short the classic model of Playwriting (Problem to be solved, leading to climax and resolution) doesn't necessarily apply.  There are other unique play models that work for the 10 minute play.

MODELS OF THE TEN MINUTE PLAY:

Classic Model: A problem to be solved leading to a climax and resolution.

Example: A depressed divorced man down on his luck, longing to be in a relationship, goes on a horrible blind date and realizes he would be happier alone.  

Situational Model: The play is driven by an odd, strange or unique situation - it doesn't necessarily have a character resolution.

Example: Two guys meet at a health clinic to get tested for stds and they discover that they are dating the same woman.

Character Driven Model: The fun and through line of this type of play is the unique and interesting characters depicted and their interaction. 

Example: Two over the top flaming drag queens who live together make Sunday moring pancakes together. What fun, huh?

All of these models are viable for the 10 Minute Play.

But the best model is to use ALL THREE AT THE SAME TIME.

Create a 10 minute play with a problem to be solved, leading to a climax and a resolution, with a really interesting situation, and with interesting and unique characters!

Example: A lonely depressed woman with Tourettes Syndrome who is desperate to find a mate and a lonely depressed one legged deaf man, also desperate, go on a blind date at an ultra high end restaurant where they encounter an angry New York waiter, and through a series of comedic events, they finally connect and fall in love.

Yeah, I know this example is pretty nutty, but do you understand what I mean?


A problem to be solved leading to a climax and resolution, interesting unique situation, and interesting unique characters are the key to a GREAT 10 Minute Play.

Yes, each model alone can work, but why not triple down and use all three?

You will be amazed!

Current Tragedy on Broadway

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So today, I decided I would go somewhere new on my daily walk. Usually I get up early and get out by 7 am and go walking down by Hudson River Park along the bike path, but today, it was raining, and rain is not fun for a daily walk, so I decided to bag it, and sleep in.

At about 2 pm, it started to clear up, and while looking out my window at the gray skies and the even grayer Hudson River, I decided that I would take a new route, and walk down 42nd St to the Broadway Theatre District, and see what it looks like at Wednesday matinee time 7 months after Broadway closed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

I threw on my black hoodie for it was cool, and my black mask because... because that is the right thing to do, and I went on my merry way.

As I walked down 42nd St. I felt this sick sadness in my gut. I had heard that much of the Theatre District had closed, but I hadn’t seen it personally, and as you all know, I am the world’s most passionate theatre enthusiast, so I knew this walk was not going to be pretty.

My first casualty of the day was The Theatre Row Diner. My partner Jen and I had spent many a night there after performing, and had many Sunday morning breakfasts there too. But the wild thing about this Diner is it rests on the spot where I produced my first OFF-BROADWAY show My Father, MY Son on Theatre Row in 1990 at The South Street Theatre. Why it was named The South Street Theatre when it was on 42nd St was beyond me, but I loved that theatre, and I was deeply saddened when it was destroyed years later to build a diner.

And now, The Theatre Row Diner is out of business, like Theatre Row. Maybe in some sort of synchronistic world when this THEATRE PAUSE passes, someone will turn the diner back into a theatre, or better yet, into a Diner Theatre. What a concept! Come have breakfast and catch a show!

This is what I do when I am bent out of shape, I make jokes.

I walked by Playwrights Horizons and I was thrilled to see that they had a big colorful LED screen that said something happy:

“Stay safe! We miss you. We’ll be back soon!”

If you look at the picture below, it’s pretty wild.

 
 

Are they saying that we should just hang out and get drunk until we can come back?

Yes, I know it must be a picture from one of their performances, but, it was strangely sad and strangely funny at the same time.

Then I saw this:

7 months of Theatre Row being closed - yeah, I would prefer a LED screen with pictures of people drinking. I felt my tears well up and I stuffed them down. If I started to cry, I would never finish my walk, and I didn’t want to be that guy in a black hoodie and black mask crying like a baby walking down 42nd St. Not today.

Today I wanted to see and ACCEPT what is really happening here, or ACCEPT what is NOT really happening here.

Someone told me that in order to lose weight effectively, you need to get on the scale and see exactly how much you weigh. Without knowing your starting point in relation to where you want to be, how are you going to know how to proceed?

I will never give up on theatre, and I will be a part of the solution when it is safe again for theatre to happen in New York City, and if that’s true, I need to see exactly what is happening here in New York City, and not be a weepy baby about it.

So I took a deep breath, and continued on my pilgrimage.

I walked down “THE DISNEY BLOCK,” which is 42nd St between 8th Ave and Times Square, which was once, back in the 70’s and 80’s, a block of XXX movie theatres. Under Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor of New York from 1994 to 2001, the Times Square area, and especially this block, was DISNEY-A-FIED as the XXX theatres were bought up and the sex shops were regulated.

Today, the DISNEY BLOCK was basically shuttered, other than Madame Tussauds, and believe it or not, Ripley’s Believe It Or NOT, the only other tourist attraction on the block.

I thought to myself:

“Hell, give me those XXX theatres back! Anything, please!”

I walked further down 42nd St, made a left, and I saw Times Square, and my heart stopped.

It was about 2:30 pm Matinee time on a Wednesday.

I sighed a deep and scary sigh.

“Where is everybody? Where are the people? Where are the theatre-goers?” and I had to laugh when I thought this:

“Where are the tourists?”

“Hell, give me back the tourists! And the reason they come here - BROADWAY! WHERE IS EVERYBODY?”

And only one Times Square character: the guy on the stilts dressed as The Statue of Liberty!

Where is Iron Man, and Batman, and, (I can’t believe I am saying this!) Where is THE NAKED COWBOY?

I stood there frozen holding in an avalanche of tears.

“I need to stay present.

I need to stay here and take this in…

and…

…I need to cry!”

The dam broke and it flooded on to my black mask, and I became that guy weeping in Times Square, that guy crying in a black hoodie, staining his black mask with tears, as the Statue of Liberty on stilts watched in silence.

“It’s gone.

Broadway is gone for now. Theatre is gone for now.

That is what I need to accept, so I can move forward.”

Suddenly, I remembered something… something that happened in Times Square, a little over a year ago.

When I was moving out of our theatre on 45th St, it was clear that we had accumulated way too much stuff, and because I was pressed for time, I had to find homes for everything pronto for I didn’t want to throw good stuff away.

It was a Sunday afternoon, right around Matinee time, and I loaded up a cart with about 20 folding chairs from our theatre, and I rolled it two blocks to Time Square.

It was hot, a real NYC August hot, yet still there were hundreds of people crammed into Times Square hanging out, taking pictures with The Naked Cowboy, The Statue of Liberty, Batman, Elmo and more. And then, there were others, theatre goers passionately pushing their way through Times Square to make a Sunday matinee performance.

There was a lean homeless man sitting on the pavement by THE GAP with a paper cup full of change in front of him.

I rolled my cart of folding chairs up to him, and said:

"Hey, would you by any chance want a folding chair for free? Then, you won’t have to sit on the ground.”

And what I saw was like nothing I could ever have imagined. His eyes lit up, he smiled a smile which seemed like the first real smile he smiled in a very long time, and then he said, “Sure, I would love a chair.”

I took one off my cart and handed it to him.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” he said.

He unfolded the chair, set it on his spot, and then turned it to face the Coca-Cola sign above the TKTS booth.

He then sat down on it like a KING on a brand new throne.

And instantly, I became that crazy man weeping like a baby in Times Square.

But I was weeping from joy.

That crazy hot August day, when I gave away the chairs, was one of the greatest days of my life. So many of the homeless were so thankful and happy, some even utterly overjoyed.

And all I did was give them something to sit on, and some respect.

And there I was today, again, weeping like a baby in Times Square, but this time, I was NOT weeping from joy.

I was weeping from the loss of a world I FEAR I will never experience again.

This Times Square was not the Times Square I remembered.

And then, I had the flash of The Time Square chairs.

I immediately stopped crying, and started to laugh through my tear-stained mask, and I am sure The Statue of Liberty thought I was crazy.

And Ms. Liberty was probably right.

I was crazy to get caught up in my FEAR.

I can’t change what has happened, but I can show up and LEAN into this brave new world, and choose compassion and choose to be a part of the solution. Times Square was again reminding me that even little things can make a big difference in your life, and in the lives of others.

A gift of a folding chair, and respect.

So do what you can.

And in that moment, I decided to take lots of pictures, share this story, and stop the weeping.

I took a walk by many of the Broadway theatres and I took pictures of the notices on their doors, in regard to closing, ticket refunds and more.

(Click on images to enlarge!)

And then I swung back around to Times Square and the TKTS booth, where, in my lifetime, I have spent many hours happily waiting on line for inexpensive Broadway tickets.

“WHERE

IS

EVERYBODY?”

“Where the heck is everybody?”

My stomach started to tighten again, as my tear ducts swelled.

I looked to my right and there were chairs and small tables that had been brought in by the city to create an eating area in Duffy Square, right in the middle of Times Square.

I grabbed a chair.

I walked around the TKTS booth, and placed the chair in front of the statue of Father Duffy. I sat down and I stared up at the Coca-Cola sign.

“I’m here in New York City.

And I am not going anywhere.

I am a part of the solution.”

And as I sat there, like a King on a brand new throne looking up at the Coca-Cola sign, I smiled the first real smile I have smiled in a very long time.

Here are some more pictures of my Times Square pilgrimage.

(Click on the smaller images to enlarge.)

Plan your play!

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For some unknown reason, scores of playwrights believe that the concept of planning a play from the beginning to the end, with clear events and actions in each scene, with scenes that top each other in some unique way, leading to a climax, will mess with their creativity.

Mess with your creativity? Is that true? Have you ever tried it? Maybe you could write a better play?

Planning your play is a smart strategy to write a compelling play.

I often get this:

“I like to start and see where my creativity takes me.”

Why don’t you try using your creativity to plan your play and see where it takes you, so you don’t waste time being serendipitous randomly writing your play?

“Planning a play is too much work.”

Anything great in life requires work.

Do you really want to write a great play?

What would happen if we built buildings without a clear gameplan and blueprint? We would create makeshift retrofitted buildings that would never stand the test of time.

So you want your play to stand the test of time? Do you want to build a story that is compelling, involving and dramatic? (Yes, even comedies are compelling, involving and dramatic.) Do you want to write a Masterpiece?

I don’t believe that planning your play is the only way to write a play, for it isn’t. Yet, in my experience in coaching playwrights, 9 out of 10, once they finally plan their play, find writing it exhilerating, easy, and they produce some of their best work ever!

Do you want to be more productive? Write better plays with a faster and a more effective workflow?

Try planning your play with clear events and actions in each scene, with scenes that top each other in some unique way, leading to a climax. And then write it from your plan, build it, make it real and alive!

Our biggest challenge is the part of us that thinks we know it all. If we know it all, why would we want to do something new, even if we are told it could work for us? We don’t do something new for we have decided in advance without trying it, that it won’t work.

And that could be true.

But until you try something, you will never know.

As a creator and teacher, I try to be open to everything, even that planning your play won’t work for you.

And I invite you to try it out, like when you try on a new outfit at the store. You don’t know you want to buy it until you put it on, and it fits right and you look great, so you buy it.

But if you never tried it on, you would have missed out on a fantastic outfit.

Don’t miss out on a fantastic play because of something you believe to be true.

Find out.

Challenge your beliefs about your possibilities as a playwright and creator.

Challenge your beliefs every day.

For you are a lot more than you think.

The Courage to Create Beyond your Fear! Being Truthful about PTSD!

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It is scary to write about something real. It might be dark, or shameful, or just plain ridiculous, yet I feel that the best plays come from this “scary” place. Many plays require great courage to be written, and even more courage to be brought to life on stage. These plays are transformational, not just for the playwright, but for all involved in the production, and the audience too.

What will it take for you to write that “scary” play?

It took me two years to write my “scary” play, and another 4 months to bring it to life, and I have never been more frightened in my life on an opening night.

When I was 45, I was in a 200 hour Yoga Teacher Training, and as I studied Yoga and lived in Yoga, I started to “feel” very strange things in Yoga class. Some days I would start to sob in class, but there was no feeling connected to it, yet my body would be sobbing somatically. Other times, in class I would suddenly feel the emotional pain as I entered into a hip opener asana, and my head would literally vibrate from side to side.

So I decided to leave the training, and work privately with a brilliant and compassionate Yogi from my training, to dig into my body and figure out what the HECK was going on. As I explored the memories somehow trapped in my body, things got worse. I started to feel random anxiety outside of doing Yoga and experienced severe and random muscle cramping.

And then all Hell broke loose! I re-traumatized my nervous system from a forgotten traumatic event from my childhood. I developed severe PTSD and bizarre somatic reactions. Sometimes with just a thought, I would find myself thrown against a wall. And at other times, my body would flap and bounced uncontrollably.

In a nutshell, it was NOT fun.

So I decided I would heal myself and write a play and/or a movie about this crazy experience, and how I healed myself, because I needed a reason for all of this.

And that is what kept me going day after day. I would tell this story of how I healed myself to help others with similar problems. And that commitment to telling my story SAVED me. I focused on living my story and healing, so I could someday share that story on stage.

So I started videoing everything, my Yoga sessions, my therapy sessions and personal somatic events that would manifest daily. Over a period of 3 years, I worked with every type of physical and mental doctor, practitioner, or shaman in my quest to figure out what happened to me, and how I could end the madness, and remarkably after 3 years, I cured myself 100% of my PTSD.

And then two years later, I finally found the courage to tell this story.

I remember on opening night, when I was on stage showing one of the real life videos where I “bounced” around my living room from my insane PTSD, I thought to myself, “What the hell am I doing?” I wanted to run out of the theatre. “How can I share this? This video is so disturbing and frightening, and will anyone ever even talk to me again for I look crazy?”

But the show must go on.

And remarkably, the audience loved it.

For it was scathingly real.

I got the best reviews in my life, and the best part of the experience was talking personally with the audiences afterward for many had similar experiences, maybe not as extreme.

It was utterly fantastic for me to bring something so DARK in my life, into the LIGHT.

So I invite you to write that play that frightens you, that you know you need to write. It will be your best work, and it will transform your life, and probably the lives of those who come to see it.

Playwriting in A Brave New World

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None of us thought this day would ever come, when theatre is literally shut down across the country. Other than two productions in the Berkshires (Godspell, and Harry Clarke by David Cale) I don’t know of any other professional productions of plays (that have been approved by Actors Equity,) that have been brought to life since mid March 2020 in the United States. I know in Spain, Poland, England and a few other places, some theatres have opened with social distancing and more, but how is that really working?

Incredible Images of Theaters Preparing For Life After Lockdown https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/g32937544/theaters-reopening-coronavirus/

Barrington Stage Company https://barringtonstageco.org/distancing/

Small town venues and theatres reopen with social distancing in mind https://www.dakotanewsnow.com/video/2020/07/13/small-town-venues-theatres-reopen-with-social-distancing-mind/

A play is a joyous event. Sitting 6 feet away from masked individuals, fearful of a coughing or sneezing fit from a fellow patron 6 feet away is not my idea of fun. Yet, as playwrights, we MUST stay positive, and continue to focus on writing our best work, in a world basically devoid of live theatre.

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19 years ago, I went to see Lobby Hero by Kenneth Lonergan Off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizons on 42 St in NYC.

The play is about a doorman who betrays a confidence, and then all these terrible things happen because of it. When I left that theatre that day, I said to myself “ My God, Ken, you can never betray a confidence ever again. If someone asks you to keep a secret, you have to keep that secret.”

That day, I was changed because of a live story, a play.

So in this Brave New World where tempers are flaring unexpectedly, where our politicians can’t have a civilized conversation leading to a productive solution even to save lives, where most people are either living in fear or living in denial, we have to be ready as playwrights, as artists, and as compassionate human beings, for our stories can move mountains, inspire, and effect change better than any political debate, or legislative measure.

We have been given this magical transformational power of storytelling, and this pandemic is a call to action like never before.

This is our time to write, so when the time comes, we can be a part of the productive solution with our plays.

Let’s get to work!