The concept of an inner light or fire is found in every culture. It’s so important to keep fueling it, no matter what the circumstances, especially for writers. “Go within every day and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.” ~Katherine Dunham “Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.” ~ Maya Angelou
In Brief
In a recent workshop, Larissa Fasthorse said she began writing plays as a way to change the world. Of course that is quixotic, but in a way, I agree. “I definitely write from a need to try, in my own two hours, to right a wrong. My little play is inconsequential in terms of whether or not we have health …
On Resolutions
I don’t have, nor will I make, any resolutions for 2021. I actually hate resolutions, which seem pointless, especially when I know I can start doing something new at any time. And after 2020, the fact that circumstances are wildly out of my control is more obvious than ever. I do, however, keep Susan Sontag’s “resolution,” to hold in my …
Burning the Old Year
A gorgeous poem by Naomi Shihab Nye: Letters swallow themselves in seconds. Notes friends tied to the doorknob, transparent scarlet paper,sizzle like moth wings,marry the air. So much of any year is flammable, lists of vegetables, partial poems. Orange swirling flame of days, so little is a stone. Where there was something and suddenly isn’t, an absence shouts, celebrates, leaves a space. I begin again with the …
Goodbye 2020, you gobspittle
I can’t really add anything to what has already been said about 2020. So I’ll write one of those “how I spent my year” posts and focus on my own stuff. I had a very good year as far as playwriting is concerned. I finished the sequel to “The Victorian Ladies’ Detective Collective,” called “Escape from the Asylum.” Although it …
Free plays to read!
I’m creating this post to assemble a smattering of places to obtain and read free or low-cost stage plays for pleasure. One is a limited-time offer, so heads up! Central Works Theater: Their Script Club offers free world premiere playscripts and a podcast with the playwright (full disclosure – it’s my podcast). Playscripts: Their free reads rotate regularly. This company …
How I Love …
How I love this poem by Carol Ann Duffy, former Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom. Mrs. Midas It was late September. I’d just poured a glass of wine, begunto unwind, while the vegetables cooked. The kitchenfilled with the smell of itself, relaxed, its steamy breathgently blanching the windows. So I opened one,then with my fingers wiped the other’s glass …
Time is running out!
Originally set to be on stage in New Consrvatory Theatre Center’s 2020-21 Season, I reworked The Law of Attraction to be a hilarious and snarky (“zingy” says the Bay Area Reporter) radio play. The cast is amazing and the audio engineering and design delightful. This comedy of bad manners takes on the self-help industry and the search for perfection. Tickets …
“Tis past! Tis past!”
This little story by Hans Christian Anderson, “The Fir-Tree,” holds a valuable lesson. Out in the woods stood a nice little Fir-tree. The place he had was a very good one; the sun shone on him; as to fresh air, there was enough of that, and round him grew many large-sized comrades, pines as well as firs. But the little …
In Brief
Artist Lorna Simpson discussing her use of text with photographs: “I started to concentrate more upon how the viewer looks at photographs… I would insert my own text or my own specific reading of the image to give the viewer something they might not interpret or surmise, due to their ‘educated’ way of looking at images, and reading them for …