At the end of February, my friend Lisa contacted me to see if I was interested in joining a play she was in. The person cast as her husband had dropped out and rehearsals were about to start. I said sure. I didn’t realize it at the time, but it had been five years since…
“It’s the good advice, that you just didn’t take And who would’ve thought it figures?” Alanis Morrissette A year ago, my brother suggested that I make a Kindle version of my book Laund-o-mat at the End of the World. (The typo in the title is deliberate.) It’s a collection of three of my one-act…
Next week, Theatre Aquarius puts on its Reading Week. The artists in the various programs that Theatre Aquarius supports during the theatre season will get a chance to present an excerpt from the piece that they’ve been working on. My turn is on Wednesday (June 19). It’s always good to get your work in front…
When I tell people that I visualize, some of them give me a skeptical glance. I think many people associate the concept of visualization as some kind of hocus pocus that people employ with The Law of Attraction. You visualize something that you want to happen and miraculously it happens. I haven’t tried that kind…
Is there such a thing as talent? Does it exist? The more I think about it, the less likely I think it is. There’s definitely skill acquisition, but I think talent is a myth. I think we call people talented because we see the result of their hard work and perseverance. And because we see…
A couple of years after Deb and I got married, we were living at my Grandmother’s house because my Grandfather had passed away. My aunts had made the suggestion because it would give Deb and me the ability to live rent free and my Grandmother wouldn’t have to make any major life decisions right away…
I was talking to someone about one of the plays I’m working on and they made a comment on the subject matter. “That’s unfortunate,” they said. “People are sensitive about that topic now.” The comment made me oddly defensive and before I knew it, I said, “You write what wants to get written.” I didn’t…
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about how long it took to write the first draft of a play I’m working on. I said it was an interesting question. I recently finished the second draft of the same play. How long did it take? It’s still an interesting question… I finished the first draft…
“How long does it take you to write a draft of play?” she asked. Such an interesting question! How long does it take to create something? If I take a look at the play I’m currently working on, A Killing at the Cottage (AKATC), it took me 8 hours of writing to complete the first…
Seth Godin talks about the importance of “shipping”. Shipping is basically putting your “stuff” out there. It is about doing the thing that you want to do and getting it out into the world. If you are a playwright, shipping is sending out your play to producers or theatres to see if they want to…
peter gruner 