For my 50th birthday, my friend and long-time collaborator Lisa Neely, brought me to Austin to do a workshop and reading of my new play 1999 with her company 3rd Course: Theatre. Collaboration with friends was the best she could’ve given. MAC Arts also supported our endeavor with a generous grant which helped provide a budget for food, copies, and dramaturgical support. We’re so lucky in Greenville to have a thriving arts community, in large part because of MAC Arts’ generous funding.
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Finding Artistic Support
I’m so happy to announce I received a grant from the Metropolitan Arts Council that will go a long way in helping me develop my new play 1999. The money will be used toward a developmental workshop and reading in Austin, Texas at 3rd Course: Theatre in November!
I’ll get to work with long-time collaborators Lisa Neely and Leslie Dovale, as well as other company members. Working with 3rd Course: Theatre is such an amazing gift because over the last 15 years their audience has seen quite a few of my plays. So, they are able to have a dialogue with me about my body of work in a deep way. I find long-term collaborations, which don’t happen often enough in mainstream theatre, essential to my development as a writer. I’m so grateful to @macartscouncil for their foresight in allocating money for artists to collaborate. In my case, they are giving it to the part of the process that, by design, is unseen by a wide audience but is necessary to get it there.
One of the things I love about Greenville is the focus on supporting the arts. For a small city, there is a thriving arts community and an emphasis on supporting arts events for a Greenville audience. While my reading will take place in Austin, I hope it’s just another step toward future readings and productions in Greenville and beyond!
“This program is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council which receives support from the city oil Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, SEW Eurodrive and the South Carolina Arts Commission.”
Paper Lanterns Getting Produced in NC
One of my new 10-minute plays, Paper Lanterns, is getting a production in late August! I submitted it to this festival at the Old Courthouse Theatre near Charlotte, NC. It's one of 6 plays getting produced. I'm excited to connect with another theatre and always super thrilled to see something that's been living in my head embodied on stage!
The cool thing is it's a play that came from the writing prompts on this blog.
Read MoreReading at Writer's Festival '16
I had the opportunity to read from an excerpt of my play, On the 8’s, this week with some fabulous actors. As a reading, some of the comic potential of staging wasn’t there. But it was still fun to hear it and watch it become embodied by a new cast. And these actors were such pros, finding so many great moments, even behind music stands.
It reminds me again of why I do theatre – theatre people are so much fun and full of energy. I think it was Madeline George who described a playwright as a poet who got lonely. I agree! Sometimes my motivation for writing plays boils down to creating an excuse to hang out with these people. It's as valid a reason as any.
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