I'm participating in another one-day play festival at the Ruskin Theatre in Santa Monica. That's where five playwrights meet at 9:00 AM, are given a topic, two actors, and three hours to write a ten-minute play. Actors and directors learn and stage them in the afternoon and tonight at 7:30 and 9:00 they're presented to you the lucky public.
It's a great writing exercise. As fellow playwright, Matthew Weaver, observed: You don't have time to question whether something is "good." In a sense, the speed of the exercise forces you to get out of your own way.
A number of plays I've written for this project have been accepted in festivals around the world. Two of them will be included in the Short + Sweet Hollywood Festival next month in, of all places, Hollywood. One I'll be directing as well.
In fairness, some other plays I wrote for the Ruskin will mercifully never see the light of day again. But that's part of the fun. You never really know what you're going to get. And that adds a charge of electricity to the night.
Anyway, here's where you go for more information. And if you're there, stop by and say hello. I'll be the one either beaming in the corner or hiding behind a plant.
from By Ken Levine
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