Play of the Year and Other Assorted Business

The new year has just begun, and I’m already gearing up for the year ahead. Two plays for this year. I’m going to be doing a revision of my play All Grace, and then crafting a new play, which is actually down some familiar territory with a new slant, a new viewpoint.

All Grace is going to be my “play of the year,” the one that I actually sent to theatres and contests come September. I have a good list compiled from sending out The Brothers Caramillo, so it’ll just be getting those packets out again, sifting through all the regulations, and paying the postage.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what I’m doing with my playwriting career... I should have put that in quotation marks. My “playwriting career.” At the moment, it’s not much of a career. I’ve been a finalist in several things, but... Always a bridesmaid, never a bride...

My wife had to do this assignment for school: create a “life map” of where she saw herself in ten years. She wanted us to work together since our lives are so intertwined, but I was really in a poor state of mind to be thinking about ten years in the future. At that point, I would’ve said, “I’ll still be a failure. I’ll still be working at -------- Bank, doing nothing with my life, forgetting that spark of hope and joy that comes from creating pieces for the theatre.” Now, I feel like I’m in a much better state of mind, but rather than looking ten years into the future, I’m going to do this as Melanie Marnich instructed us my second year at the University of Iowa: “In One Year, In Three Years, In Five Years.” My initial try at this with Melanie was pretty successful, I’m at the third year, and while I haven’t succeeded fully, I have hit one or two benchmarks. So...

In One Year:
I will have at least a reading of one of my plays somewhere. PlayLabs, PlayPenn, the O’Neill... That’s kind of out of my hands right now, I’m playing the waiting game, so I will produce a reading of one of my plays somewhere myself: Columbus, NY, somewhere. I will send out All Grace to theatres and contests around the country and finish my new play, Dust. I will apply for New Dramatists.

In Three Years:
I will have started a family. I’ll be only working a part time “day job,” whether it be in academia or elsewhere. I’ll be making enough money from at least one or two commissions and have a good working relationship with at least one theatre. I’ll still be working on a “Play of the Year,” sending it out to theatres and contests. I’ll still be active in liturgical dramas at church.

In Five Years:
I will have a professorship. I will have had at least two productions at major regional theatres. I’ll have an agent. I’ll still be working on a “Play of the Year,” and I’ll still be active in liturgical dramas at church.

Wow.

I thought I was far away from reaching any of my goals. I’ve been feeling pretty hopeless lately, having just received another rejection for Brothers Caramillo, but I have to keep everything in perspective. I’ve only had two rejections out of nineteen. That leaves 17 places left, and in at least one, I’m a semifinalist, so that’s a good thing, right? I just have to keep everything in perspective.