Mom. Playwright.

Like many Americans, I have been seeking information and reactions about the Republican party pick for U.S. Vice President, Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska. As a matter of fact, it has scarily become a little obsessive.

So while I try to extract myself from the fray, check out these non-partisan details about the Last Frontier Theatre Conference, a gathering of playwrights, actors, directors and theatre enthusiasts from the world over that takes places annually in Palin’s fair state–specifically in the city of Valdez. The 17th Annual Conference is scheduled for June 13-20, 2009.

By all accounts, the Conference’s approval rating among past attendees is high, what with all its fabled master classes, panel discussions, evening shows and post-show receptions.

Like the fate of Palin’s VP quest, how the Last Frontier Theatre Conference 2009 will shake out remains to be seen, as the conference schedule is still in the planning stages. Hence registration links aren’t yet live, nor are the Play Lab selections and featured artists yet named.

But the LFTC website suggests that playwrights get on Gary Garrison’s mailing list to stay in The Loop. I did some months ago, and unlike what’s playing out in this U.S. presidential election year, the decision that it was a good choice is uncontested.

Have any of you readers been to the Last Frontier Theatre Conference? Does it get your vote? Leave a comment below.

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Well, actually, they’re giving all playwrights the following opportunity, but I can image how classic some entries would be with a mom playwright’s perspective. What do you think? Do you want to accept the writing challenge of the September 1st deadline?

RIVERSIDE THEATRE ANNOUNCES SEPTEMBER 1ST DEADLINE FOR MONOLOGUE SUBMISSIONS TO WALKING THE WIRE: MONOLOGUES AT RIVERSIDE

Iowa City, IA – Riverside Theatre invites playwrights to submit monologues for performance in Walking the Wire: Monologues at Riverside. This Tenth Anniversary celebration of original work features monologues of ten minutes or less by both established and up-and-coming playwrights. The focus for this season’s monologues is: FOOD. Submissions must be postmarked September 1, 2008 or emailed as a Word document and dated by midnight September 1; final selections will be announced no later than October 31. The
monologues will be performed March 5-8, 2009 at Riverside Theatre.

Submission Guidelines:

1. Riverside Theatre is seeking original monologues surrounding one of our favorite obsessions . . . food! The quiche the dog ate? A holiday cooking fiasco? If you love Mama, you’ll eat another piece of pie? Why, there’s more possibilities than a 50-foot salad bar!

2. Up to two submissions per author of original, unpublished and unproduced monologues (may be dramatic character or personal memoir) less than ten minutes length (please read it aloud to be certain and include the approximate performance time on the first page of your submission; all lengths of up to ten minutes will be considered, with the objective of choosing monologues of varying lengths). The copy must be easy to read: double spaced in a minimum 12 pt. font, and should include the playwright’s name, mailing address, email address, and phone number.

3. Simple is best. Since “Walking the Wire” typically includes a large number of monologues, it is important that each one require as little production as possible; set-pieces, props, or effects needing set-up, strike, or special technical support may disqualify an otherwise excellent submission.

4. The POSTMARK deadline for submissions is September 1, 2008. Email submissions (Word document attachment) must be dated by midnight September 1. Final selections will be made by October 31, 2009, and posted on Riverside Theatre’s website, www.riversidetheatre.org.

5. Writers will be credited in all marketing and playbill materials; no royalties will be paid for performance. Monologues will be individually rehearsed and coached by the director until the week of the performance when the entire company will rehearse at Riverside Theatre. Area playwrights may perform their own work if available for rehearsal, or may include the name of an actor interested in performing the monologue, although neither is required. Walking the Wire will be produced March 5-8, 2009.

6. Submissions should be mailed to:

Riverside Theatre
Jody Hovland, Artistic Director
Walking the Wire submission
213 N. Gilbert Street
Iowa City, IA 52245

For guideline questions, please contact Jody Hovland, artistic@riversidetheatre.org.

Jody is also a mom, who knows a little something about balancing theatre and family. Read her and her husband’s story here.

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Listening to NPR’s Morning Edition while driving my son to school today, I was chilled by this report from Lourdes Garcia-Navarro on the work of the Iraqi Center for Children’s Culture in Baghdad. Following is an excerpt of the words that grabbed me, though I challenge you to actually click and listen to all that I heard here:

Back at the rehearsal, the play is ending. After the scene of the car bombing, a young girl comes on stage and draws a question mark.

Rusol Nawfal, 11, says her role is a simple one.

“I draw that [question mark] in order to ask why — why are my friends getting killed?” Nawfal says matter-of-factly. “This is a play, but it’s also reality because there are children playing on the streets and car bombs do kill them. We have not enjoyed our childhood. We stay at home and watch cartoons, if we have electricity. If we don’t have electricity, we either sleep or sit around the house.

She starts to cry and walks away. A teacher says her father has just been killed.

The rehearsal starts again, and Nawfal walks back on stage. The play poses the question, but gives the children no answers.

Regrettably, I don’t have the answers either. But I am reminded that art matters. Theatre matters. And the work of a playwright can serve as a salve for the writer, the actor(s), the audience and, dare I believe, a society.

I urge you to listen this report. Hug a child, be it your own or one close to you, and hold a high thought for what Michelle Obama passionately proposed last night during her Democratic National Convention keynote speech, “The world as it should be.”

Given our gifts and talents, what can we do to make it so?

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Friday?! Whew! Where does the week go?

This past Wednesday evening, I attended a private reading of Mountain Greenery by prolific playwright and fellow WTP affiliate Evan Guilford-Blake. It was a comic look at corporate America and self-discovery and made for a good evening of playwriting/theatre exchange. Watch for it…

When I got home, Hubby wanted to know all about the reading. As I shared, I got to thinking about how much easier it would have been had he joined me, as I prefer exchange to exposition.

But alas, this time around he was home with the children, so that I could have the benefit of going out and enjoying and learning from the evening. Go it solo, or go-it-together-and-do-the-sitter-scramble: this is the decision we make with every performance I look to attend.

And with my recent selection as an Alliance Reviewer for the 2008-2009 season, we’ve already pretty much exhausted our sitter resources (I’m delighted, though–don’t get me wrong).

With this in mind, I offer my kudos to Nightwood Theatre and American Repertory Theatre for implementing an idea whose time has come: offering babysitting services to patrons.

Now granted, I’m sure the market isn’t a giant one, but I’ll bet it’s one that will prove worth tapping.

Nightwood will be launching its onsite babysitting program this season, with select matinee shows. It offers the service free to donors and those with season passes. American Repertory also positions babysitting as a subscriber perk for its select Saturday matinee performances, at $10 per child per show.

If one of the theatres already on my “I Like Their Work” List offered babysitting as a benefit of their season subscription program, the scales would very likely tip in their favor to receive my membership dollars. It is my sincerest hope that this idea will catch on like wildfire. As it’s said, “The family that family that plays together stays together.”

Do you know of any other theatres, American or otherwise, that offer a childcare perk? Would you be enticed to become a season subscriber with this benefit?

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Hello Mom Playwright friends. Here’s an opportunity that was shared with me, and I am happy to pass the word along to you:

The International Centre for Women Playwrights is looking for volunteer readers for an anthology of monologues on the Mother/ Daughter experience.

Each reader is requested to view at least 12 monologues and rate them on the following criteria:

* Cleanliness/Presentation of the Monologue (no typos, missing words, etc) (1-5)

* Relative Completeness of the Monologue (does it feel like a whole and complete theatrical unit?) (1-5)

* Adherence to the theme of Mother/Daughter Experience (1-5)

* Reflection of overall ICWP Mission available at http:// www.netspace.org/~icwp/about.html (1-5)

(possible score of 20 * 5 = % out of 100)

Additional dramaturgical comments on the material for the editors are welcome, but not required. All playwrights will be given the opportunity to review comments and revise the work prior to publication.

The monologues and the review process will be entirely online. A private, free Google account will be required. Some training and support will be provided. You cannot be a reader if you have submitted a monologue to the project: both ICWP members and non-members are encouraged to review. All proceeds of the publication will benefit ICWP. Reviewers will be thanked by name in the manuscript and on the ICWP website unless they wish to remain anonymous.

The review period will end on or around September 15, 2008.

If you are interested, please email icwpmotherdaughter@gmail.com with your name, city, and country ASAP.

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(AP Photo)

“Children see things very well sometimes – and idealists even better.”

I’ve spent this week seeing those who’ve been hidden in plain view. Their stories will appear in my writing. More to come…

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Today it was back to school in metro Atlanta. My son started pre-K, so I’m in an educational state of mind.

My family attended a children’s theatre performance this past weekend that I’m still trying to process, as far as how to share with the company’s powers-that-be how poor the experience was–constructively. I thought I’d do it here, as a blog post: Top 10 Tips for Successfully Engaging Young Patrons and their Parents at Your Show. But two days later I’m still having difficulty not coming off as snarky, and that is not my intention.

So I’ve tabled the idea and decided that I will just email the artistic director, as it was she who solicited our attendance in the first place. And lest you get the wrong impression, know that it wasn’t necessarily the show itself with which I took issue, but all the lacking supportive factors ’round it that prevented a pleasantly professional theatre outing.

Suffice to say that as I addressed my husband’s question of, “We drove all the way out here for that?!” on the ride home, I regretted not taking our children to see a closing weekend performance of Sleeping Beauty at the Center for Puppetry Arts instead, given the free tickets I’d been offered. I’d just wanted to give “the little guy” a chance–the same chance I’d want afforded to me as a fledgling playwright.

The thing is, we have to recognize opportunities to shine when they’re presented and seize them. Otherwise, the patron or production lost may be our own.

Class dismissed.

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Ow!!

Excuse me while I try to determine why my daughter, currently standing on my lap as I type one-handed, has just bitten my earlobe, under the guise of going in for a kiss. Should I be concerned, or just chalk it up to behavior to be expected of a toddler one week and 10 days into her “Terrble Twos”?!

Perhaps, ironically, she sensed I was about to lead you to this link, Butchering My Baby-A Parable, and decided that in case I had any literal ideas, she’d attack first.

No worries, Baby Girl–it’s just a clever metaphor from Kristoffer Diaz on the process of getting a play ready for stage. Now let’s go check Mommy’s ear and make sure there’s no permanent damage a la the infamous Tyson-Holyfield fight.

Has your “baby” ever been butchered? How did it leave you feeling?

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I was feeling stuck last week. It happens.

But last night I was determined to get “unstuck” and back to writing in the wee hours of the a.m., when I can claim the morning as mine.

I was stirred by a memoir writing exercise link found in my inbox last Wednesday by way of Oprah’s Book Club. Written by Abigail Thomas, the text came from Thinking About Memoir and included a challenge to Begin With Two Pages…

Two pages of 10 exercises such as, “Write two pages of something you can’t deny,” and “Write two pages of what you have too much of.” I started this morning with, “Write two pages of when you knew you were in trouble.” Whoa! Can’t you just see that in your mind’s eye on stage? An opening line of, “I knew I was in trouble when…”

I don’t have any intentions (at this point) of writing my memoir, but I find these exercises as fertile ground for mining play dialogue and premise. I maintain, inspiration can come from anywhere. Thanks, Abigail and Oprah.

Check out the How to Write Your Own Memoir excerpt and exercises. Will you take the challenge? It’s just two pages. Even a Mom Playwright can handle that!

And while you’re at it, check out these tips for making reading fun for kids.

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