Here’s a dilemma I’ve never faced before: I volunteered to be on the writer selection committee of my playwrights’ group and the first person’s work I read was lacking in many, many ways. My first reaction was thumbs down. The dialogue, characters, plot and storytelling all needed major work (in both pieces that were submitted), and I pointed out to my fellow committee members that we weren’t in the business of teaching basic playwriting.

But then I started considering this writer’s personal qualities… even-tempered, has the ability to give constructive feedback. Now if someone were an ogre, I would count that against them, and no matter how talented they are, I wouldn’t want them wrecking havoc on our group. So if someone is pleasant, thoughtful and has helpful insights (even with a blind eye towards their own script – which can be true of most of us writers, ho ho ho!)… should that tip the scales in their favor?

Then someone on the committee wondered if we could ask for a rewrite, giving the writer some of our feedback, to see if improvement in the work were possible. That seems like a workable solution… and isn’t just a thumbs up / thumbs down thing, although the feedback has to be open-ended enough that we’re not making the writer conform to how WE want the play to be. The extreme version of this would be Hollywood studio executives man-handling a script with a million notes so the writer’s vision and voice are completely compromised if not lost.

The other extreme would be saying “Sure, c’mon and join us!” and not having the guts to say no just because we’re too polite and don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings.

Discussion to ensue, no doubt, as we balance what’s best for this writer and for the group…

Throwing it open to the bloggers and any readers who want to weigh in – how about we take these gems of wisdom we’ve been writing in this space and collect them into a book? Let’s see a show of hands… (in the comments section).

Secondly, how should we determine what goes in? Should we pick our own top five? And then appoint an evaluation team? Or throw the selection process open to voting by the bloggers?

Finally, is anyone besides the bloggers reading these postings? Show of hands (down there in the comments section)?

Thanks!

And now relax and enjoy a little winter wonderland… and let us be thankful we’re not shoveling it or driving in it.

I love Kathryn Schulz – I don’t know her – but I love the way her mind works. The way she is able to put into words her landscape of exploration.

So on the other side of this week’s failings and attempts and recognitions.

Kathryn Schulz Talk on TED: Regret

All this week I’ve been crammed into blocks of time that have been frantic, noisy, chaotic pieces of work.

None of the blocks were my writing blocks – rather my day job. My day job that now spans into a day and night job this week. I’m seeing the balance of being able to devote any focus or head room into my play just evaporate these past few weeks. SSSSSSsssssszzzzzztttt……

I have big boxes to move around in my head (family cancer), (refinancing the mortgage), (a cat who is now wearing an eye patch and a big cone on her head).

Then there are the little boxes (another play is being considered at a big theatre – how long does it take to make a decision on that?), (my unfinished Lilith art piece that needs to done by December 20th), and not the least of it all (is there gas in my car?)  Any box will do rather than visit the big empty box where the life of my play sits waiting for me.

None of which makes for a compelling share on this blog – and I’m rather shamed that I don’t have more to offer.  I kept putting off writing on the blog here this week: surely I’ll come up with SOMETHING worth sharing.

I would like to offer a blog that has become compelling reading for me, written by the daughter of a friend of mine:  Dash and Bella.  She lives up in Berkeley and she writes about cooking with her children (she is a accomplished chef, was a Julliard dancer, and has a very interesting and multi-layered life).  Its her candor  in her blog, her sprinkled profanities and wonder that make her writing so personal and exploratory.  I wasn’t keen on her adventure with the cow heart, but then, she’s so brave about writing about all of what she experiences.  And I guess that inspirational to me.

The Blog – Dash and Bella by Phyllis Grant

I’m working on a script right now that speaks in both Spanish and English…and I’m finding the challenge is scrambling my brain. I have a friend who is a fluent Spanish translator and she is helping me with the translation, but it’s quite a feat for this brain of mine to think in the culture of another language.

Here’s a blog site that I find inspirational….Interviews with Playwrights

I had never heard her voice before entering the rehearsal room one minute before it started – apparently when cabbing in New York City being able to articulate 8^th Avenue vs. 8^th Street becomes very important during rush hour traffic heading to lower Manhattan when I should have been heading toward Midtown West. Rehearsal starts and we begin to speak. Talking isn’t an issue for me, but listening to her is easy; it is right. She is in command of the ship. I feel safe. We all order a Guinness at O’Lunney’s after the reading. My eyes well up with gratitude. She is the director.

I made the mistake of sharing I wanted to write great roles for actresses of a certain age. I know I meant for actresses like me. She thought I aged her. She is beautiful. Her emotions are raw. I didn’t mean to offend. She is gracious and loving, and her wit acerbic. She’s perfect. She is an actress.

He held back and yet with every beat he gave us more and more and wickedly he drew us in, chewed us up, and made us beg for more. He is an actor.

I wonder why women can’t be angry. What’s the threat? The actress knew to play it. The audience knew not what to make of it. “She is an angry young woman.” Don’t argue I tell myself. “It is your job to perform the dissection and create the place where it is understandable.” I am the playwright not the protagonist; my Mary.

The reading of Water Closet by the White Horse Theater Company at the New York offices of the Dramatists Guild was last Friday night from 7:30 to 9:00pm.

It followed my barely surviving a bicycle rickshaw ride from 42^nd Street to the hotel. Which was followed by a call to a producer at KTLA to confirm my live interview on the Sunday Edition at 8:00pm to promote the Museum of Teaching and Learning’s November 17^th screening of Mendez v. Westminster: Families for Equality at the Old Orange County Courthouse.

However it preceded our landing an hour late on Sunday and being chauffeured by my friends to Sunset and the 101, so I could change clothes in the car on the way. Thank God for the make-up artist.

Anyway, the reading of Water Closet was last Friday night. But then I wrote that already. Please don’t believe my tap dancing around the reading in anyway qualifies it as less than a success. This is merely my way of building suspense. Or writing poorly, depending upon your perspective. I will write this. The reading was so fully realized from direction, casting, to performance that I could actually hear the issues with the play.

There was no time for a talk-back. However the comment cards are coming in. They were all pretty much confused as to why the character of Mary is so angry… After being trained not to include stage directions, I was encouraged to include stage directions, so that I might better create the world of the play. I need transitions, foreshadowing, more exposition, a better spine. Look at entrances and exits.

Guess what I’ll be doing after cooking next Thursday. Is it a coincidence Water Closet begins on Thanksgiving Day?