submission opp: The Tolo de Abril Theatre Company

The Tolo de Abril Theatre Company  

announces an open call for submissions

please read the submission requirements carefully:

1) Plays must be submitted on April 31, 2011.  No plays will be accepted before or after that date.

2) Plays must be unproduced, unpublished, and actually unwritten.  Any play that has even been thought about is ineligible for this festival.

3) Plays must be exactly 121.237 minutes long in performance.  For the purposes of this festival, one page is equal to 1.7143 minutes. 

4) No email submissions will be accepted.  No regular mail submissions will be accepted.  Please print 27 copies of your play on vellum and deliver by horseback to the theater.

5) There is a $15 submission fee per page.  Add $10 if you would like feedback.  Add $20 if you would not like feedback.

6) All plays must be in the One True Holy Play Format.  But we're not going to tell you what we think that is.

7) Plays must be on the theme of "Data Mining In The 21st Century", and must include mention of: a banana, Sweden, Don Knotts and a pair of worn flipflops.  Other than that you have complete creative license.

8) The winners of the festival must pay an additional $500 for programs, lights, costumes, and beer for all of us.

9) Any play appearing in this festival can not be performed again in this solar system for the next 3.5 billion years.

10) Please include with your submission a synopsis, character breakdown, nervous breakdown, the reason you think we should do your play, a paragraph on why you think you're so great, an artistic statement, a photocopy of your artistic license, a brief bio, a brief bio of James K. Polk, and a small woodland creature, all in the same envelope.

11) We do not accept ten minute plays, collections of ten minute plays, musicals, plays for children, plays for adults, or plays for old people.

12) See our website for complete details.

This was shared with me (and the Binge list) by the fabulous playwright Mark Harvey Levine.   He's a prolific and talented writer of short plays, who seems to end up with a play included in just about every short play festival out there.

 

What We're Thinking: Writers Need Dates

Yep, writers need dates.

Not those kinds of dates.  I mean that we need to have some specific notion of when a reader is going to read our material and reply.  This applies to agents, editors, literary managers, artistic directors (and even friends/colleagues).  If a reader gets a script submission from a writer, that person can contribute to the increase in the world's net sanity by taking the time to send a simple e-mail that says, "Thanks for sending your play/novel/screenplay.  I'll get back to you in about ___ months."

Sure it's a pain, but please, please, please do it.

Because here's what we're thinking:

(timeline after submission--hours, minutes, seconds)

0:00.00   I did it.  Finally got that script out.  This could be my big break.

0:00.01    Did that really go through?

0:00.02   Did I spellcheck it before I sent it?  I didn't.  There's going to be a typo.  If there's a typo, that's an automatic rejection.  I'm such an idiot.

0:00.05  I wonder if she got it?  She's probably in a meeting.

0:00.10   I should eat some ice cream to celebrate.

0:02.00   I wonder if she got it.  I'll check my email.  Maybe she'll call instead.  Is my phone on? 


0:10.00    Maybe she didn't get it.  I could resend it.  But I'll seem like a pain in the ass.  Should I e-mail to see if she got it?  It's only been ten minutes, maybe she's not a compulsive e-mail checker (unlike some people).

0:13.00    I can't believe I just ate a whole pint of ice cream.  There's a maximum number of calories your body can digest in a single sitting , right?

1:00.00   Thank god for You Tube.

1:05.00    And Facebook.

1:17.00    And Twitter

1:35.00   #$%^& Angry Birds!  (I should be writing a new piece, but I can't stop wondering--did she get it.)

4:03.00   She got it. Just hasn't had a chance to open it yet.

4:03.10   She read the first page and hated it.  She'll never read another word.  She's just trying to figure out how to let me down easy.

4:03.25   She just hasn't checked her e-mail.  Bullshit, it's been four hours, three minutes, twenty-five seconds.  She checked her e-mail.  No one goes more than four hours without checking e-mail.  If it went through, she got it.  She's just busy.  Too busy for a hack like me.  Jeez, negativity.  My career is over before it even started.  Patience.

1 day   She must have gotten it.  She's just busy.  She'll get to it.

2 days   She spends half her life in meetings.  She just needs to find the time.

1 week    Just forget it.  Busy.  They're busy.  She hasn't had time to dig into the pile.

2 weeks   She didn't get it.

2 weeks, 1 day    She hated it.  I'm a terrible, no-talent loser.  She's just trying to find a nice way to tell me.

2 weeks, 1 day, 2 minutes    She's a demon from hell, determined to crush my spirit.  I won't be crushed.  I won't give in to despair.  But a drink wouldn't hurt.

2 weeks, 1 day, 45 minutes   Who knew there were so many shots in one bottle?  I could probably calculate how many.  Or could have before I drank quite this much.

2 weeks, 1 day, 3 hours   Orrrr thissh mushh.  Yer fnny looking.

1 month, 3 days    I wonder that it's really like to be a plumber.  It can't be all that bad, can it?

1 month, 5 day  Maybe I should follow up.  With an e-mail.  Or a phone call.  They say to never call.  I'll email.   "Did you get it?"  "Will you ever read it?"  "Do you hate me?"  "Was it really that bad?"

2 months   She detests my work.  I should submit to a bunch of other places.  Who will never respond.  The writing was so bad, she puked.

2 months, 2 minutes   She's a blind pig.

2 months, 2 minutes, 10 seconds    I'm a horrible person.  She's lovely.  Overworked.  Heading in a different direction.  Not interested in my work.  Who would be?  Why am I even wasting anyone's time?  My parents were right.  Even the cat doesn't want to sit on this manuscript, that's how bad it is.  Maybe I'll e-mail her.  Or call her.  Or e-mail her every five minutes, until I get an answer.

3 months  The phone will ring today, and she'll say she wants to represent it/buy it/produce it.

3 months, 1 day    She never got it.  She got it, but she'd rather work with some hack from NYU/Harvard/Julliard.


And, so on, indefinitely.  Until you answer, or the writer is hit by a bus, or dies of old age.



I don't mind rejections, but I can't stand silence and inaction.  Over the past few years, the response rate back on script submissions to theatres has risen over 40%.   The response rate to queries to literary agents for books has been about the same.  (As far as I can tell, literary agents for plays never respond.)

If a theatre/agent/editor doesn't have the time or resources to respond to submissions, then maybe he or she should stop taking submissions for a while.  Otherwise, the whole business, whether it's fiction or theatre, starts grinding people down in a way that isn't helpful or healthy for anyone.

Often, writers feel lonely, ignored, and worthless.  Some of that is unavoidable, and maybe even inspirational.  But there's no point in feeding desperation and despair and creating a poisonous cloud that enshrouds all of us.

Writers need dates, from readers.  We'll be as patient as you need us to be, but we just need a little help.

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. 

Tornado Siren ebook--week one report

So my novel, Tornado Siren, has been live as an ebook for a week on Amazon for the Kindle, and a little less than a week on Barnes & Noble for the Nook, as well as on Smashwords.

I've done a little bit of the basic kinds of promo--I put out the word via Twitter and Facebook.  I updated my Goodreads settings.  I updated my web site and blog.  Sent out an e-mail to my list (about 700 people), telling them that it's out and asking folks who have read it to consider posting a review on one of the online sites.

So, how's the experiment going so far?

The nice thing with ebook publishing is that I can actually look up numbers to find that out.  Though that might also be a downside for a compulsive numbers guy like me.  (Don't ask how many times a day I check.)

In the first week, Tornado Siren has sold 14 copies for the Kindle (13 in the US, 1 in the UK), 2 on Smashwords (and the sample has been downloaded 14 times), and none for the Nook.  I didn't expect sales to be so heavily weighted towards the Kindle--does anyone actually use Nooks?

Also, my friends have come through nicely, and added a bunch of reviews to all of the sites, which I think might help.  Most of the people I know already own paper copies of the book and have read it, so they're not likely to buy the ebook.


So, for the first week, with no big promo and no publisher behind it, this seems like a reasonable amount of sales.  I guess.  (I'd love to have it become a fabulous bestseller overnight, of course.  Though I have to say that each book sold was a thrill. )

What happens next?  Certainly the buzz to family and friends will die off in the next week or two, as people clear out their email inboxes.  After that, I'm not quite sure how random readers are going to find this thing.  Earlier this week, I searched for Paranormal Romances on the Amazon Kindle site (its default search is by "relevance").  Tornado Siren was on the list, but it was at number 707.  I imagine I'm about the only one obsessed enough to page through to number 707.  Since the book is self-published, it's not eligible for most reviews, plus the print version was reviewed (though those reviews aren't yet showing up on the Kindle site).

 I might pick up a few random readers from my web site and blog (I get a few dozen a day, but probably a lot of the same people).  I'm looking at other possible promo ideas--there are some book review web sites out there, with a focus on ebooks.  I don't have a lot of cash to pay for online ads, and generally people seem to think they don't work.  (I need to do more research on this.)

It seems like if your sales are high, and you can leap into the top 100 in your category on Amazon, you've got a good chance of continuing those sales.  But without that start, I'm curious to see how I can get people to buy and read the ebook.  Still, at least now it's possible.  For more than a year, no one could read except if they checked it out from one of the few libraries that carries it.

I'll keep working on it, and I'll report back on my progress in a couple weeks.  And also, a big thanks to those of you who have posted reviews or bought the ebook already!  I very much appreciate the support.