I'm taking part in the Fresh Ink/Interim Writers 24-hour hour play festival and fundraiser, The Mad Dash,
for the second year in a row. Tonight, 16 playwrights will meet up at
Doyle's Pub in Jamaica Plain and be paired into 8 writing teams. We
will go find someplace to write and magically churn out a brand new
ten-minute play (based on prompts we'll receive tonight) by 7 a.m.
tomorrow morning. We'll meet with directors, start rehearsing with the
casts, and plays will be fully staged by 8 p.m. tomorrow night, at the
Central Square YMCA in Cambridge.
Tickets are
$15 in advance, or $20 at the door. This fundraiser is all the more
important this year, because we just found out the the Factory Theatre,
where Fresh Ink normally performs (and where my play, Distant Neighbors
was scheduled to open in November) will close on October 31 (see the story in WBUR's ARTery site). So they're going to need all the resources they can get to find a new space.
I
already took two naps today, trying to get ready for tonight. It's
always a little nervewracking, knowing that you must come up with a new
play by morning. Last year, we had a blast and turned out some pretty
fun work. (I'm hoping my partner will want to write at IHOP again--I
could go for a serious sugar rush.)
I can't wait to see what we come up with this year.
