Ebb

Patricia MiltonQuote

Ebb by Edna St. Vincent Millay I know what my heart is like      Since your love died:It is like a hollow ledgeHolding a little pool      Left there by the tide,      A little tepid pool,Drying inward from the edge.

More Chocolate

Patricia MiltonBlog

What is it about chocolate that inspires such poetry? Here’s one by Erin Keane about the bad kids in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory What they didn’t tell us, after we unwrappedthe lucky bar, was our place in the plot: stupid, fat, competitive, spoiled—at a madman’s whim.We were to make the blond kid look …

On Opportunity

Patricia MiltonBlog

“Every opportunity is attached to a person. Opportunities do not float like clouds in the sky. They’re attached to people. If you’re looking for an opportunity — including one that has a financial payoff — you’re really looking for a person.” ~Ben Casnocha

Soft Deadline

Patricia MiltonBlog

I love deadlines. Deadlines spur me me to do my work. They urge me on to the finish. I deeply enjoy procrastinating, too, but having a deadline helps me make sure that I get the work done. My tendency is to be an Obliger, and I need an external accountability mechanism. More about the Four Tendencies here. You don’t need …

At Noon

Patricia MiltonBlog

BY REGINALD GIBBONS The thick-walled room’s cave-darkness,cool in summer, soothesby saying, This is the truth, not the tautcicada-strummed daylight.Rest here, out of the flame—the thick air’sstirred by the fan’s fourslow-moving spoons; under the house the stonehas its feet in deep water.Outside, even the sun god, dressed in this lifeas a lizard, abruptly riseson stiff legs and descends blasé toward the shadows.

Collaboration Skills

Patricia MiltonBlog

One area of collaboration involves knowing *where you are* in the decision making process. There are three distinct phases that lead to a decision: Opening, Narrowing (aka Evaluating), and Closing. Usually, partners will be better at one or another of these phases. In Opening, you are brainstorming, perhaps researching, thinking of all the things that could go into your project. …

Collaboration How-To

Patricia MiltonBlog

Collaboration is extremely vital to making theater, and, sometimes, to writing for theater. I have collaborated with others on regular plays and on musicals, and learned a lot about how to navigate what aspects can be difficult about such partnerships. One of the most important things is to have a solid foundation: a similar aesthetic or creative vision. The more …

In Sorrow’s Kitchen

Patricia MiltonBlog, Video

This Writer’s Symposium interview with Alice Walker is satisfying and enlightening, despite the terrible interviewer. Highly recommended. “I was born to do this,” Alice explains. “My work is medicine.”

Learn with London Playwrights

Patricia MiltonBlog

This looks like fun: starts June 1! Learn with London Playwrights is a series of podcast style lectures, resources, and workshops covering all things theatre related! Want to find out more about your favourite musical? Fancy a discussion on Fleabag? Or want to brush up on Brecht? The Learn with London Playwrights series is for everyone! Maybe your background isn’t …

Quitting Social Media

Patricia MiltonBlog, Quote

The Mediums It took a week for us to stop hearing the voices.Although they had been our constant companionsfor years by then, a steady stream of chatter,it reached the point where they became unbearable.Each message had become a death to us. Just a littleto start with, soft like the twitter of birds,not too intrusive perhaps, but then more insistentby the …