write a play

Really enjoyed doing it – it was a competition that sparked me off. I used to write little plays all the time when I was a kid, but studying drama put me off. I guess I had to watch too many bad plays at university, I was left not knowing what a play should be. Hopefully I’m over it now.

I’m adding this a little after the event. I finished writing my first play this month. Why wouldn’t I have put that up as a goal already? It was down in my big list in my journal anyhow. But I’ve done it. Yay for me.

i want it to have roles for speciffically for each of the members of my drama club and a few extra roles, even if they don’t do it

To anyone wanting to write a play, or a movie, or any sort of script, please visit www.scriptfrenzy.org. I’m not trying to sell you anything – this is a completely FREE writing challenge. You do this only for yourself, for the pride and joy of knowing you set a goal for yourself and accomplished it.

Basically, you challenge yourself to write 100 pages of a script (any script – stage, screen, radio, comic book…) in the 30 days of April. There is an online and real-life community of like-minded writers racing to the finish line with you, sharing your joys, your sorrows, your writer’s block, and your caffeine overdose. It’s the most fun you can have in 30 days. (Outside of November, that is… www.nanowrimo.org…)

Every year there is a huge playwriting competition at my local theatre. Every year I say I am going to write a play and enter it, then I procrastinate, make excuses, and don’t.

The deadline is in the next few days. That gives me a whole year to write a play for next years comp. No excuses.

Well I either finished the play or finished act 2. I guess I’ll find out when I get my readers’ comments. But I have no idea what to do for an act 3 if they think one is needed.

I was finally able to get myself back to working on this. I ran into a playwright I know here in town yesterday. Luckily I had just gotten back to work on this, so I was able to discuss it positively. I’ve added a bit more tonight, and kind of feel it is coming to an “end”. My only concern is that it will end up leaving the reader/audience wanting more. But I have a hard time with “ends”. Stories don’t end. I have to leave the characters with more to do. And maybe it is right for the audience to wonder. It at least means they’re thinking about it.

I’m still thinking about this play idea I had. I got the idea after reading Love’s Labour’s Lost and thinking, “Geez, I could have done a better job on this!” The treatment I’m thinking of is a romantic comedy of three siblings who go to college in New York and the relationship misadventures they have…and yeah, based heavily on LLL, but with less loopy poetry and more snark. (Not so much as Gilmour Girls, but some.)

Theatre Design and Scene Painting was my major in college so I’m well-versed in all things “backstage”. I’ve even had some success onstage in shows like “Arsenic and Old Lace”, “Greater Tuna 1 and 2” and “7 Blowjobs” (don’t ask). I’ve even directed once, ” ‘night Mother” in 1991. But I’ve always thought writing for the stage would be fantastic!

When I was in college, an urban legend said that if your roommate committed suicide, then you would get a 4.0 for the quarter. Great idea for a 3 act play!!! Imagine a quad (a dorm with 4 people) where 1 person committs suicide in the first act. The second act is two of the roommates conspiring to kill a third. The 3rd act is a showdown between the last remaining two guys. Greta idea for a black comedy, “Deathtrap” style.

Then my awesome idea was made into a crappy movie called “Dead Man on Campus” and they didn’t even know I thought of it first!!

Lousy, frickin’ planet!

I’ve writen one already, probably more than one but I want it to be huge and epic and cool, I’m thinking something to do with Jack the Ripper