Curse the Darkness in Lakeshore

More good news for my short plays:  my newest short comedy, Curse the Darkness, is a winner in the Lakeshore Players 10-Minute Play Contest and Festival.  This is a scene change comedy (a stealth comedy, meant specifically for festivals) that I've been meaning to write for years.   (You can read the whole script here.)  Now it'll get a chance to hit the stage, June 9-12, in White Bear Lake, Minnesota.

Lakeshore is a fun group, and it seems like they run a good festival.  (They pay royalties, which is an excellent quality in any theatre.)  Last year they produced my short comedy, Schedule-Meisters, and I heard plenty of good reports.  (Schedule-Meisters is now published by Brooklyn Publishers.)

I hope to get a chance to see this play on stage here in Boston someday, and especially hope we can use the actors for whom the characters are named (the Rhombus actors from last season, who had a very fun time reading the play at our meetings).

Huntington to produce two new plays by local writers

Yep, that's right, next season, the Huntington will produce new plays by two Boston writers--Kirsten Greenidge (The Luck of the Irish) and Rosanna Alfaro (Before I Leave You).  Kirsten is in Rhombus with me, and Rosanna and I are both currently Huntington Playwriting Fellows, so it's especially cool to have the Huntington producing works by friends of mine, and scripts that are just so darn good.

So, yes, I've been reporting/observing/whining a lot lately that there aren't many local writers getting professional productions of the plays by Boston area theatres, but the Huntington certainly is doing its part next season (kudos to Lisa Timmel, Director of New Plays for the Huntington).

Let's see if any other theatres can follow suit.

Escape to Wonderland in Boston Theater Marathon

I got some good news last week:  my play, Escape to Wonderland, will be in the next Boston Theater Marathon.  (May 22, at the Calderwood Pavilion Theatre.)

The Boston Theater Marathon is one of favorite theatrical events every year (whether I'm in it or not, though I've been pretty lucky so far--this will be my eighth time in it):  50 new ten-minute plays, by 50 New England writers, produced by 50 different area theatre companies.  All in one day.  It's a tremendous smorgasbord of Boston theatre.

I won't find out which company will be producing the script for another month yet, but I'm dying to find out.  I've made some great relationships with theatres and artists from being paired up at the Marathon.

This play was written as part of Mill 6's T Plays series last year, and had some tremendously good performances (our local NPR station did a fun story on the creation of it).  I got to see it again this winter in DC, in the Madcap Players' Winter Carnival.  One of the great things about being a playwright is getting to see multiple productions of the same play.

Here's a photo by Isaac Liu of Keva Colbert as Cassie and Niaya L. Little as Jackie in the Madcap version.  (Directed by Gary Raymond Fry, Jr.)

And here's one from the T Plays version, with Jen O'Connor and Ally Tully (directed by John O'Brien and Barlow Adamson).

Tornado Siren part of Read an E-Book Week (and half off)

There's a time for everything, and apparently the week of March 6-12 is the time to read e-books--it's officially "Read an E-Book Week."  It even has its own web site, with the history of e-books (they've been around a lot longer than you'd think) and other information and special offers.

My little part of "Read an E-Book Week" is a special promotion through Smashwords for Tornado Siren.  For this week, you can buy the e-book version of Tornado Siren for half off ($1.50 vs. the regular $2.99) at Smashwords.

It's a fun story and now it's even on sale, and Smashwords lets you read a pretty sizable free sample, in a variety of different formats.  I hope you'll check it out.