Thespian Musings: Playwright Goals New Year 2020

New Year!

Yay!

I've been thinking a lot about things--including how far I've come as a playwright.

2019 threw me for a loop artistically, but in a good way.

Actually, it blew my mind artistically.

I got not one, but two productions;

wrote two and a half additional full length plays(the half is cause the draft of the third one won't be done for another month, which means half goes on the 2019 writing list and half goes on the writing list for 2020), one short and a one act;

and one published script.

Oh, and I got back to this blog.

Yeah.

Consider my mind exploded!

It made me want to do more as an artist and member of the theatre community.

So, because it's New Year, I have made a couple of Artistic Goals that I have the next twelve months to accomplish.

(and maybe now that I've written them down some of you out there in the blog-o-sphere can hold me to account, cause I'm also gonna try to keep this blog up better than I have in the past, ha ha).

1. More Draft Readings
Deanna Raybourne said something in an interview once that has become my mantra

"It needs to be done and CRAP before it can be done and GOOD."

I'm one of those people that doesn't want to show my work to anyone until I think is perfect.

 But, let's be real, a playwright's revision can only go so far unless he or she shows it to other people. Or several other people in a reading.

And guess what?

Readings don't have to be staged--they can be done in your living room and you can bribe friends with food

(but even if you don't have food, if they're your friends and if their schedules allow they will come anyway).

I didn't do any readings for a couple of my plays until a friend of mine called me out(see terrified of everything above), and boy was I ever glad she did cause there's nothing like a reading to pull one out of Writer's Slough.

So I'm going to do more Readings of my script drafts.

(which is actually one of the more terrifying goals I've ever made, ha ha)


2.  More Cold Submission
One summer I was so bored I just started submitting to every single theatre I could find just to have something to do.

I made over a hundred submissions--

and got rejected a lot--

and still felt like I'd accomplished something besides keeping a roof over my head(which is a great thing too, because I love my day job!).

That was five years ago.

And while I do understand that there are theatres that will take agent submissions only(with good reason, probably), there are other theatres that don't and they take digital submissions.

So the only thing that's stopping me is laziness.

Go figure.

I'm going to see how many times I can hit the "send"/"submit" button this year.

(which is probably one of the easiest goals I've ever made)


3. More Involvement on NPX 
I've been on the New Play Exchange for a while now, and recently got involved in an NPX Reading Challenge group where we get to read a certain number of plays every other month; and the experience has been amazing!

There are so many talented playwrights out there with mind-blowing stories that are begging to be read and I doubt I'd have read as many as I have without this group.

Which is sad, because I shouldn't need an incentive to read plays and support the artistic ability of others.

That's stupid.

Goal number three is to do a certain number of NPX recommendations a week, because I love to read plays anyway so why not choose from the thousands on New Play Exchange

(shameless plug: go join NPX as a writer or a reader cause they are incredible!)


So those are my Artistic Goals for 2020.

Ambitious?

Yes.

Terrifying(to me)?

Of course!

Doable none the less?

Duh!

Happy New Year guys! May 2020 be as amazing or better than 2019!