Playwriting Update

I posted in mid-February about the 28 Plays Later challenge that I was trying out. I think part of the reason I decided to write a post about it was that I felt I was losing enthusiasm a bit and hoped that putting my reasons for taking part into words might help. Well, the fact is that it didn't really. Although the challenges that followed did take me to some interesting places, on the whole I found that my interest level continued to drop, and in the end I only got through the first 24 of the 28 challenges. I would still highly recommend 28 Plays Later: it was wonderful in a lot of ways. I might even try it again myself another year.

So, what about results? I am still writing, but not as much as while I was doing the challenge. I think it has helped a bit to get me into writing mode, but it did not magically cure all my writer's block issues. (Darn!) I haven't done any more scriptwriting since finishing, having felt more inclined to get back to fiction and poetry, so I can't say yet whether it has helped with that.

One thing I found interesting was that I ended up writing several plays that involved clowns or physical comedy of some sort. I'm not sure if this is the influence of Deadmonton lingering on, since I spent quite a few hours there last fall as various creepy clown characters. I didn't write anything I would describe as horror, though: funny that the clowning would rub off more than the creepiness.

Mentioning Deadmonton sort of leads into the other thing I wanted to mention. Another idea I had for what might help me with scriptwriting was to get involved with some more theatre projects, preferably ones with people who knew what they were doing, as opposed to things I organized myself. So, when Emily Pole, one of the other Deadmonton actors, posted that she was holding auditions for a couple one act plays that she was going to direct for St. Albert Dinner Theatre, I decided to put my name in. The result is that I have got a part in a really fun little farce set in a 1930s boarding house, called 'A Mad Breakfast'. We're just starting to rehearse, and so far I'm enjoying being a part of this group very much.