This postYet another Snowstorm post. :) (But it’s the last one.) We had the encore performance of “Eccentricities” tonight, and it went quite well, even though the place wasn’t completely sold out. At the end they tallied all the audience votes for the four performances, and to my surprise, Snowstorm took third place! (That’s a good surprise, not a bad one. :P) They presented me with a check for $15 which I’m going to frame as my first real writing prize.
It’s not about the money. It’s not even about winning, really. It’s about the joy of theatre, of words and acting and stories, of humanity. Even though I didn’t really participate in the production — I wrote the script, submitted it, and then sat back and let them do their thing — even though I was a clockmaker playwright, I still felt a wonderful sense of community with all the other playwrights and actors and directors and everyone else who helped out. I love theatre.
Which doesn’t mean it’s been a bed of roses. (And by the way, I’m not sure a bed of roses is all that great. I mean, the petals would get squished all over as soon as you got in, and the smell would be a bit overpowering, and doesn’t the pigment in flowers rub off on you, too? ;)) Saturday, for example, I kept seeing all the faults in my script (lines I wish I’d written differently), and I have to admit that it got me down. I almost vowed to stop writing plays entirely — with fiction and poetry, you don’t have to see it acted out in front of everyone, it stays safely on the page. Less embarrassing if it goes wrong. But then by Sunday I was itching at the bit again to finish this new play and submit it. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster, really — nothing like dating, but still a lot of ups and downs.
We have a talkback session after each performance, and usually all of the questions have been directed at other plays, because all but mine had a deeper meaning and thus provided more fodder for discussion. Tonight, though, something bizarrely switched, and almost all of the questions were about Snowstorm. Unexpected but fun. I’m realizing that even though I usually don’t like being up in front of large groups of people, I can do this. I even like it. Phew. :)
So anyway, the submission deadline for the next festival is tomorrow at midnight. (If you’d like to submit something — and you really ought to — you can check out the website.) I’ve got one play which is mostly done (and the title keeps changing so I’ll leave it anonymous :P), and then Saturday around noon I was walking down the hill south of campus and came up with another idea which I’m also going to try to write by tomorrow night. Lots of writing, but it’s worth it. Oh, it’s worth it. :)
