If the first quarter is indication, 2012 promises to be another good year. Although the first few weeks dragged their feet, momentum picked up quickly in February, and March was even more exciting. April brought more good news.
April
My play The Truth Quotient has been selected as a finalist for this year’s Woodward/Newman Drama Award. Life is Mostly Straws was a finalist last year. Considering that only 10 finalists are chosen out of hundreds of submissions, it’s an honor to make the short list two years running. In addition, Life is Mostly Straws has been named a semi-finalist for the Playwrights First Award, given by the National Arts Club (NY), and has been nominated for the Cherry Lane Mentor Project 2013 by Eric Parness, artistic director of the Resonance Ensemble (NY).
Also in April, The Gallery Players (NY) selected my play Thank Emily for a full production in June as part of the Black Box New Play Festival. In March, Thank Emily was chosen as a semi-finalist in the American Globe Theatre’s (NY) One-Act Play Festival and was given a fully-produced performance on April 27. That performance resulted in the play moving to the finals on May 4 and 5.
March
The month began with an award ceremony at The Players Club on Gramercy Park, an historic theater organization. My play Life is Mostly Straws was one of two finalists for the Stanley Drama Award, presented at the Club on March 5th.
Since then, my e-mail inbox has been busy. Although only out in the field for a short time, my latest full-length play, The Truth Quotient, has been named a finalist at the Ashland New Plays Festival (OR), the Dayton Playhouse FutureFest (OH), the Orlando Shakespeare Festival’s PlayFest (FL), and Reverie Productions’ New Play Festival (NY). Finals are pending for all four. After reading some dialog samples, The Public Theater (NY), Open Fist Theatre (LA), The Blank Theatre (LA), and Trinity Repertory Company (RI) have all requested a full script.
February
February started off with a bang on the 4th in Hudson, New York, where I attended a rehearsed reading of my play An Ignorant Man at the HRC Showcase Theater, a result of being one of the winners of the W. Keith Hedrick Award the previous year.
Thanks to the number of professionals familiar with Quietus, we were able to quickly pull together a strong cast and an experienced director for a rehearsed reading of the play at the Actors Studio on February 13th. It was a lively and large crowd of friends and members, most of them eager to give their opinion (too eager at times).
In addition, Thank Emily was a finalist in the Valley Repertory Company’s (CT) New Play Contest. I attended two full productions of the work on the weekend of February 24th. I also found out in February that this same play was chosen as a semi-finalist in the American Globe Theatre’s (NY) One-Act Play Festival. It will have a full production at the Globe in late April.
January
In January, I met with a director from London. He works with the Transmission Group, an acting ensemble associated with a new London venue, The Park Theatre. He had read Quietus, passed along by a friend, and it piqued his interest. In New York for a family wedding just after the first of the year, he suggested a face-to-face meeting, after which he asked to read all of my work. The result is a week-long workshop with the Transmission Group in London in late May. At their invitation, I’ll be there for the whole thing.
Also in January, the Actors Studio (NY) requested an in-house reading of Quietus, which had been submitted during the winter by a member. Because its theme is contemporary and controversial, they asked if I could pull a team together quickly, by early February, so that we could fill a last-minute cancellation in their schedule. We obliged, not only for the opportunity to show my work, but also for the chance to soak up some of the rich history of that organization.
I spent the bulk of the month revising my newest play, The Truth Quotient, and began sending it out to national competitions.
And here’s a highlight from last year, a video made during my residency at Georgia College and State University, which awarded me the 2011 Pillars Playwriting Prize for Life is Mostly Straws.:
More videos from the production here.