I spent a good amount of time reading plays this week.

I’m on a play reading committee.

And our first meeting was today, so I needed to have some plays to recommend.

I read more plays this week, than I’ve read in the last couple of years.

That’s crazy!

I should be reading more plays.

I consider myself a playwright.

Reading helps fill the creative reservoir.

Reading other plays inspires me.

Reading other plays teaches me about the craft.

Sometimes reading other plays provides a kick in the butt. Because I could have written something better.

And other times, I marvel at the creative brilliance of the playwright.

Sometimes a piece will also provoke a creative response.

One of Ray Bradbury’s short stories provoked me to write my play Laund-o-mat at the End of the World.

It took me about 27 years to write it.

But I wouldn’t have written it without having first read Bradbury’s story.

Don’t get me wrong, I read.

But I haven’t been reading plays.

I haven’t even been reading much fiction.

I must remind myself to fill that well.

I often think of Stephen King’s advice:

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot…Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life.”

I have been lax with my reading.

I shouldn’t be binging my reading either.

I should read consistently.

Let’s see if I can read a play a week for the rest of the year…

(or 52 plays by the end of the year. I shouldn’t binge, but doesn’t mean I won’t…)