I just finished writing my sixth play.  Yay!  But I was troubled by a previous wish.

I have been wanting to write a full length play since the beginning.  Unfortunately, my plays only seem to want to be one act plays.  50 minutes or less.  It’s not a bad length for a Fringe show, but if you want to get your work looked at by a big theatre, they want a full length play.

My current play, Cast Away, tried to fulfill my wish.  When I didn’t want it to.  I had submitted a proposal for The Pearl Company Canadian Theatre Festival and it got accepted.  Uh-oh.  How long was my play?  Uh… 50 minutes?  Like most of my other plays…

Well, when I started writing it, the play didn’t want to be 50 minutes.  It wanted to be twice as long as that!  But I had already confirmed that it WAS 50 minutes!!  D-oh!

I finished the first draft and then I had to cut.  Mercilessly.  I cut and cut and it was still longer than 50 minutes.  I cut my darlings.  I slashed anything that could be taken out without being missed.  When I couldn’t look at it any more, I sent it to my friend and he suggested more cuts.  And it refuses to shrink.  😦 

It’s a one man show, so I’m rehearsing it now and whittling a sentence here or a line there.  But I keep thinking to myself.  Next time I’ll write it first before submitting the idea.  Or be careful for what I wish for…