I hate producing

I have a very wise Skype writing buddy Ellen Struve, who says, “producing is what drives writers back to the keyboard.” Truer words were never spoken.

I’m thrilled beyond belief that my play ALICE (an evening with the tart-tongued daughter of Theodore Roosevelt) will be part of next month’s Capital Fringe Festival here in Washington, DC. It will be my first DC production since moving here two and a half years ago – my formal introduction to this hopping theatre town. But it’s been a long time since I’ve produced anything. Now I remember why.

Last week, it was working with the postcard designer. Today, it was handing in a list of names of the production team to the box office and a phone introduction of my director (in Maryland) to my leading lady (in Florida) while waiting in the retina doctors office, with my eyes dilated. I haven’t written a new word in weeks.

But perhaps Ellen is right. The horrors of producing will indeed drive me back to the less scary world of a blank page. I sure hope so.

Meanwhile, there’s the Dramatists Guild event to look forward to! Starting Thursday night, I’ll be filling you in from the event. So stay tuned.

ps: any words of advice on producing would be greatly appreciated!

About Kitty Felde

Award-winning public radio journalist, writer, and TEDx speaker Kitty Felde hosts the Book Club for Kids podcast, named by The Times of London as one of the top 10 kidcasts in the world. The Los Angeles native created the Washington bureau for Southern California Public Radio and covered Capitol Hill for nearly a decade, explaining how government works to grownups. Now she explains it to kids in a series of mystery novels and podcasts called The Fina Mendoza Mysteries. Kitty was named LA Radio Journalist of the Year three times by the LA Press Club and the Society of Professional Journalists.

One thought on “I hate producing

  1. Been there, done that. Produced my play Godislav four summers ago when my producer had a falling-out w/ my writers’ group. I nearly went insane w/ all of the tasks (plus my TV production job) and I couldn’t focus on any rewriting at all — no time, no brain cells available. And no plan to do it again any time soon. I tried to delegate as much as I could (that’s my tiny bit of advice)… and yet, I was the delegator, so it still ate up brain cells and time…

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