And So It's Happening... Workshopping THE EASY ROAD for Skirts AFire...

This Thursday I will be working with a fabulous dramaturge (Tracy Carroll) and 5 amazing actors (Michele Fleiger, Lora Brovold, April Banigan, Stephanie Wolfe and Jenny McKillop) to workshop my script The Easy Road in preparation for Skirts Afire in March.  I am nervous, but so excited.  A workshop opportunity, especially one a month and a bit ahead of the presentation is an incredible opportunity.  I can read my play to myself and make adjustments and changes, but until I hear it aloud, it's hard to really get what shape it's in.  I am in a great position.  I will get to hear it, definitely more than once, possibly with different actors reading different roles, and I will get to have fabulous discussions with someone who knows a lot more about play construction than I do.  And then, blessing upon blessing, I will be able to go away and rewrite.  And I will have time to make changes and more changes before the first week of March when we go back into workshop preparing to present it.

When I first started writing plays, I didn't really know about this process.  I was lucky enough to encounter it on a smaller scale through the APN Playwright's Circles, once at 10 Days of Madness before it was cancelled, and in courses at the University and then applying that to my rehearsal process for my fringe shows.  I rarely have had the opportunity to have a dramaturge like Tracy Carroll there to shepherd the process.  And to have this group of women reading for me.  I have seen them onstage and been blown away by them all, so to have them read my work and help me write a better play is just amazing.  We think that playwrights work alone, in a vacuum, and for some of the time, we do, but better writing happens with this kind of collaboration.  I promise to make it count!