Boston Theatre Marathon this Sunday, May 20!

I look forward to the Boston Theater Marathon all year.  For me, it’s like the theatrical version of the Patriots or the Red Sox in the playoffs.  I don’t like to miss a minute.  For a single day, a huge swath of the Boston and New England theatre community comes together to show off their stuff.  Last year, I dragged Kira (then 16) and fellow Rhombus playwright, Alexa Mavromatis (who didn’t actually require dragging), to the Marathon and we watched every one of the fifty plays.  We packed snacks, we stretched, we took notes, we chatted with friends between sets, and we soaked it all in.

We’ll be there again this year.  My play, Second Look, will be in the 6-7pm slot, directed by Steve Faria and produced by the Firehouse Center for the Arts in Newburyport.  I saw a rehearsal last week, and they're doing a great job with it.  I can't wait to see it on Sunday.

The minute the lights go down, there’s that flicker of electricity that comes at the start of any show.  But at the Marathon, you get a new jolt every hour, with each new set of plays.  Fifty scripts by fifty different writers (fifty-three this year, because fifty just wasn’t enough), directed by fifty different directors, produced by fifty different theatre companies.  It’s rare in any city to see companies of all different sizes putting their work on the same stage—but at the Marathon, they all play together, as peers.

But wait, there’s more.  You get to watch all these interesting new plays and fantastic New England actors, and it’s all for a good cause.  Yep, the money raised is for the Theatre Community Benevolent Fund (TCBF), which gives financial relief to members of the theatre community in crisis—people facing extreme illness, flood, fire, theft.  TCBF gives out thousands of dollars every year.  And the Theater Marathon helps make all that possible.

So you can go for fun, or to socialize, or to help theatre folk in need.  Or all three.  But whatever you do, don’t miss it.  Get your tickets HERE.

(A version of this post appeared on the StageSource blog, too.)

The Civilian's Guide to Book Publishing (i.e. how you can help your writer friends)

 (Book covers of newly released books by some of my friends.)

This post is not for all you artsy types who already know the ins and outs of the business of publishing.  You don't need to read this.  Go do something artistic.  (And if you have a book coming out, tell your civilian friends to come read this post.  Seriously--send them here, and then they'll know what to do.)

This is for normal folks who just happen to have a close friend or relative who after years of toil and struggling (and perhaps a little whining) has landed a book contract.  Now that book is about to be released, and you want to know how to help.

Unless you've got a spare million bucks, you're probably not going to help make this book a bestseller.  But the good news is: you actually can help, even if you're not a blogger or book reviewer.  Some of those ways cost some money (but not a lot) and most won't cost a cent (and not even much of your time).

Let's start with the kind of help that takes a little cash:

• Buy the book.  Simple enough.  But when and where you buy that book can increase the helpfulness of that purchase.   

1.  Buy it as close to the release date as possible (pre-order if you can).  The first few weeks in the life of a book have a big effect on the book's future.  Everyone is watching those numbers, especially the publisher and booksellers.  Strong early numbers might lead to additional marketing support, extra orders, or even an additional print run.  Books that don't get sold in the first few weeks have a good chance of being remaindered (returned to the publisher).  New books, it turns out, are highly perishable.  If they don't sell, you won't see them on the shelf again.  Ever.
2. Buy it from a bookstore.  Sure Amazon is easier and cheaper.  But that's because they demand huge, unsustainable discounts.  Which screws the writer.  Your friend will get more money from a book sold at a bookstore.  You also help that store stay in business (Amazon doesn't need your help).  And, if the bookstore sees that the book is selling, they will order more, and might display it more prominently.  Many cities have local bestseller lists.  You can look in your newspaper to figure out which stores report sales to create those lists (unless your paper is the New York Times).  Buy from a bookstore whose sales factor into those lists.
3. But it from a bookstore at a reading.  This makes the bookstore happy and makes your friend happy.  (More about readings below.)
4. If you can't buy it from a bookstore, it's okay to buy it from Amazon.  But do buy it.

(Total Cost:  about $25 for a hardcover, $15 for paperback.)

• Buy more copies.  Duh.  "But," you say, "I can only read it once."  Ah, but you have other friends and family, and they need gifts.  Birthdays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Arbor Day.  My friend, Laura Harrington, wrote a terrific novel, Alice Bliss, that came out last year.  Guess what the book lovers on my list got for Christmas?  The thing is, when they know that it's written by a friend of yours, they'll appreciate the book even more.  It has meaning. And they might help spread the word.  Some people are shy about giving a book by a writer that no one has ever heard of.  But do it for your friend.  Your other friends and family will thank you for sharing a terrific new book with them, and you don't have to spend hours and hours tramping around the mall or trolling the internet figuring out what to get them.
• (Total cost:  $25 and up.  The more the merrier.)

• Throw a book party. This one takes a little more cash and effort on your part.  But your friend has been running herself ragged, trying to promote her book.  You can help by inviting over a dozen friends, going to Trader Joes and buying some wine and cookies, and throwing a little party.  It can be very low key.  No pressure to buy, you just want to celebrate her accomplishment (but make sure some books are on hand and a bunch of book marks).
• (Total cost:  $30-$75, plus a couple hours of your time.)

That's really it.  I mean, you can buy an ad in the New York Times Sunday Book Section (please do), if you really want to.  But these basics make a huge difference.

There are a LOT of things you can do to help your friend's book that don't cost a cent, and will make a huge difference.  Here are a few:

1. Post about the book on Facebook and Twitter, with a link to the Amazon page for the book or to your friend's web site.  If a writer has ten friends who each post an enthusiastic recommendation for the book, and those people each have 200 Facebook friends, we're taking 2,000 people who have now heard about the book.  Don't say things you don't mean (if it's not the best book you've ever read, don't claim it as such), but this isn't the time for critical comments either (i.e. "my friend Pat just published a highly flawed novel--it's a slog, but please help him stay off food stamps").  Do post about it a few times--there's a rule of thumb in marketing that it takes three exposures to a new product for a customer to actually notice it.  (Time required:  3-5 minutes.  You can spare that for your pal, can't you?)
2. "Like" and "share" your friend's Facebook posts about the book, and retweet her tweets about it.  Especially posts about positive reviews or events. This is super easy and takes almost no time, but it boosts the effectiveness of all of your friend's marketing efforts.  Again, if an author has ten friends actively doing this on social media, those posts suddenly become much more visible to the rest of the world.  (Time required:  2-10 minutes, over the course of a few weeks.  At most.)
3. Write a review on Amazon or GoodReads (or elsewhere).  This only applies if you liked the book.  (If you don't like the book, do your friend a favor and keep that news to yourself.)  It doesn't need to be a huge review, and it doesn't need to have a plot summary.  Just mention a few things that you liked about it and rate the book.  This is a BIG help, because many people are reluctant to buy a product online that hasn't gotten many reviews.  (Time required:  5-10 minutes.  Of course, you have to read the book first, but you were going to do that anyway.)
4. Request a copy of the book from your public library.  If they don't have it, you can request it.  In most cases, you can do this very quickly online.  (Time required:  2 minutes.  Maybe an extra 3-5 minutes to figure out how to request it.)
5. Suggest it to your book club.  This can mean a whole bunch of sales.  And maybe your friend can be a special guest, either in person or via Skype.  (Time required:  2 minutes.)
6. Comment on blog posts about the book.  You won't have to work too hard to find them, because your friend will post links on Facebook or Twitter.  Your job is to follow the link, read the guest blog post or interview, and post a comment.  It doesn't have to be a long comment, but comments on posts helps capture additional attention.   And it lets your friend know that you care, and that's worth something too.  (Time required:  3-5 minutes per comment, max.)
7. Show up at a reading.  If your friend gives a reading in your area, but sure to show up.  And don't come alone.  Bring a neighbor or co-worker.  These events can be tough to promote for the author, and they're demoralizing for the writer and bookstore if no one shows up.  (Time required:  2 hours.)
8. Carry the book around.  That's right, for one week, try walking around with the book in hand, when you're going from place to place.  And talk to people about it.  (This one's hard for introverts, I know.)  If you can't do it for a week, try doing it for just one day, and try to commit to talking to one person person about the book.  Your friend has poured her soul into that book, and all you need to do is have a thirty second conversation about it.  (Time required:  depends on how you look at it.  30 seconds per conversation.  Carrying the book around, well, that's just a little extra exercise for you.)

These simple tasks won't take much of your time, but they could help boost sales for the book.  The key thing is to do them as soon as you can after the release date, to start building positive buzz.  And try to get your other friends to do the same.  If your author friend has five or ten people each taking the steps, it will definitely have an impact.

You can make a difference.  On behalf of your writer friends:  Thanks!


(Writer types, if you're still here, feel free to chime with comments on other suggestions for simple ways your friends can help.)

the Juggler Interviews, #9: Mark Dunn

This week I got to talk with Mark Dunn, whom I first met in the late '90s, when we were both having our plays produced in Denver, directed by the same director.  We stayed in touch and become friends over the years.  In terms of juggling writing for different media, Mark has always been an inspiration and role model for me, moving effortlessly from writing mostly plays to writing a variety of books (including one of my very favorite novels, Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters ). 

Back in the 90s and early 2000s, you were getting a lot of productions, at small and mid-size theatres across the country. Belles and Five Tellers Dancing in the Rain were getting a lot of productions . You had a dozen full-length plays published by Samuel French, DPS and Dramatic Publishing. And then your first novel, Ella Minnow Pea, came out and was a big hit. Ella Minnow Pea has been followed by a whole string of books—what was the transition like, moving from writing plays to books (and moving, physically, from New York to Albuquerque)?

The transition was stranger than I expected.  I went from working exclusively in a very artistically collaborative medium to one in which the writer has to do most of the heavy lifting.  I often make the comparison when I'm teaching writing workshops between the playscript serving as a blueprint which then is taken by the director and the actors and from which the physical play is constructed -- contrasted with a novel which serves as the creative entity itself and lives or dies only on the basis of the text itself upon the page.  There are advantages and disadvantages to each: as a playwright I like working with people who bring their own forms of creativity and artistic insight into the mix.  Together we create this (hopefully) beautiful piece of theatre that takes its author's original story idea and shapes it into something that everyone has a stake in.  (And woe to the playwright who gets too proprietary about his work.)  But a novelist doesn't get to benefit from the overlay of other talents and perspectives, except in terms of editorial input.  And I've had editors who were very hands-off.  I've had the other kinds of editors, as well, resulting in (in one sad case) clashing visions that resulted in my publishing house siding with my editor and dropping the book altogether.  The physical move from New York to New Mexico paralleled my shift in large part from writing plays to books.  I drew a lot of creative energy as a playwright from living in a theatre town like New York.  But an author can pen his books anywhere, so my wife and I picked a place that was quieter and little more sedate than the Big Apple.  The irony is that I really did want to keep my hand in and perhaps write a new play every year or so and suddenly I had entered a community in which being in the theatre was considered more of an avocation than a vocation.  To put it bluntly, I moved to a town with an enormous number of community theatres, and very little opportunities for professional playwrights to develop new work.

Was Ella Minnow Pea the first novel that you wrote, or the first that was published?

Ella was my first published novel, but I had written Welcome to Higby several years before.  After Ella was published, my publisher asked what I'd be working on next, and I handed him Higby.  It worked out pretty well, although the books being so different from each other, spoke to different sets of readers (and some fans of my "progressively lipogrammatic epistolary fable Ella Minnow Pea" were looking for something similar and instead, I gave them a book about a small town in Mississippi).

How long did it take for you to find a publisher for Ella?

Quite a while.  I couldn't get an agent for an odd book like Ella and had a hard time landing this unagented novel with a publisher.  Most of the queries to both agents and publishers (for which I received responses) met with form-letter rejections.  Good luck was eventually on my side, though.  MacAdam/Cage had just opened its doors the year before and was still hungry for manuscripts, even to the point of accepting unsolicited manuscripts from unrepresented authors.  Even MacAdam/Cage doesn't do that today.  Interestingly, when the hardback did well and there was a bidding war among several of the large publishing houses for the paperback rights, I had a private laugh over the fact that each of these publishers participating in the auction for Ella's paperback rights, had rejected the book when I had first queried them about it.

It seemed like for a while you dived headfirst into writing books, but you’ve managed to keep your hand in theatre. What makes it so hard to leave playwriting?

Many of the things I noted above, but I should also say that as one who is basically a storyteller, and a storyteller who first learned to tell stories through dialogue, playwriting has always been a comfortable vehicle for me.  As a writer who enjoys challenges, I've always felt that the idea of holding an audience's interest for two hours through people simply talking to one another on a stage was a challenge that I especially loved.

Do you find it difficult, as a writer, to go back and forth, or is it actually helpful?

These days I make that transition fairly easily.  It's like an artist who spends part of his time painting in oil and part of his time painting in watercolor, which requires two very different techniques, but after a while you get used to the adjustments.  With plays I work small and work concise.  There's an economy of words that must be respected.  My canvas is much, much larger with my novels and I have the chance to explore the contours of my novels' characters, which I can't do with my play characters.  My latest book, though, offers an interesting challenge -- American Decameron is 100 short stories.  As I've worked through these stories, I've found that I've had to apply some of my playwriting rules of saying much with fewer words.  But in large part that's just a difference between long form writing and short form writing -- the same way that my one-act plays require a different approach than my full length plays.

Do you find that you have more freedom to challenge yourself and your audience when writing books? When I look at some of the work you’ve done, Ella Minnow Pea, Ibid , Under the Harrow , and your upcoming American Decameron, it seems like you’ve set up extremely difficult situations for yourself as a writer (for example, in Ella Minnow Pea, you are forced to progressively use fewer and fewer letters of the alphabet, Ibid is told entirely in footnotes), and the reader gets sucked in with seeing whether you can pull it off. It’s so cool that you’re able to write like this, yet at the same time, it seems like the publishing industry is becoming more risk-averse in terms of what they’ll publish. This would seem especially difficult for a writer like you, who is not writing in an established genre. What’s your take on the state of American publishing right now?

And that pretty much defines where I am right now.  I do really enjoy the constraints and the challenges and the chance to do things that few if any authors have done before.  I can safely say that no author has ever written a book about a disappearing alphabet in which the alphabet literally disappears from the book as it goes along.  Ella Minnow Pea has now become fodder for literary trivia -- a weird but fun honor.  But because I tend to do things that have few comparables, it puts me in an awkward and mostly unfortunate situation with regard to extremely risk-averse and conservative publishers (which pretty much defines all of the medium to large-size houses right now.)  American Decameron was rejected by one editor after another when my agent started sending it around because it was a big book, because it was comprised of short stories in a day in which very few short story collections are being published (not that A.D. is a "collection" in the traditional sense), because it can't be easily described by an editor to those of her superiors who will ultimately decide its fate.  And that's the problem with the industry right now.  Hard economics has made it much more difficult to take on a book that may have the potential to break out on its own and turn itself into a publishing phenomenon, but also could end up falling far short and lose the house money.  So what we have is fear and parochialism in the industry.  Something similar, I noticed, happened with my published plays over the last four years of this recession.  The community theatres that generally license my work from the play catalogs stopped scheduling plays in their seasons that weren't in what I call the "cobweb canon."  We saw a lot of productions around the country of old plays (often tired, old plays) with familiar titles.  Most of my plays don't have familiar titles and so my playwriting revenue went into a several-year slump.

You’ve written one book for kids, The Age Altertron (Calamitous Adventures of Rodney and Wayne, Cosmic Repairboys) . How did you approach writing for a younger audience?

I put myself as best I could into the head of the young pre-teen reader.  I kept the language simple but not patronizingly so.  What worked best for me is writing the kind of book that I would have enjoyed reading when I was twelve.  But it definitely required the shifting of a few gears.  Then again, I shift gears a lot.  Every book I write requires its own voice and its own storytelling tool box.

I love that you’ve been able to do some non-fiction work—you wrote ZOUNDS!: A Browser's Dictionary of Interjections and you and your wife, Mary, put together the comprehensive, United States Counties. Again, you seem able to make some big, fun leaps into other types of projects. How do you balance it all? Do you tend to have a lot of projects running all at once?

I actually do work on more than one project at a time -- unless I have a deadline that forces me to concentrate on one particular book or play until I'm finished.  I shuffle through them in such a way that I keep myself engaged and energized on each one.  Maybe that's why I'm allowed to tell people that I don't get writer's block.  If I find myself getting to a point where I'm going to have work myself through a tough spot, I move to something else and then come back.  Often my return involves backing up a few chapters or pages and then going at it with a running start.  I also have projects that I've set aside, that I like to come back to from time to time.  My maxim usually is that anything I write can be made better if I keep working on it.  It's only my published work that I'm not allowed to tinker with anymore.  On occasion I've taken work out that's ten, twelve years old and now with a more mature eye, I can reshape it in a way that makes it more satisfying for me.

What is your writing schedule like for a novel, a book of non-fiction, a play? Does it vary a lot?

The non-fiction can be a slog.  The county encyclopedia as the exception to all my usual rules was like working each day in a salt mine.  On the other hand I usually am having so much fun with my books and plays that it's hard to pull myself away when I'm "in the zone."  People wonder why I'm able to write such long books.  Under the Harrow, for example is 200,000 words, and American Decameron will be 250,000.  In large part it's because I really enjoy spending time with the characters I've created.  I'm also not averse to research and so many of my books have been pretty heavily researched.  I like discovering things in my research that will serve my story and characters and even sometimes shift things in an unexpected new direction.

How do you organize the research that you do? (I’m using Scrivener now and really like it.) I’d love to hear about the tools that you use. You worked for a long time at the New York Public Library. Did you learn any good tricks there?

I use no tools beyond the cerebral ones I've acquired through trial and error and intuition.  For the county encyclopedia Mary and I created a large WORD database divided into state folders and county files and using the same template into which to plug in information and text, so that at the end of the day, the county articles were nearly written from the assembly of information in each file.  But I'm an old fashioned researcher.  I've spent thousands of hours sitting in library reading rooms with either my laptop or pencils and spiral-bound notebooks, jotting down facts that I felt might be useful in my plays and fiction projects.  I'm an armchair cultural historian of the 20th century, so often I was building around information I already knew.  With respect to my last novel, Under the Harrow, it was necessary for me to sit with the Encyclopedia Britannica from the 1880s and browse through nearly every page to get a sense as to what it was that my characters would know, since they were quarantined neo-Victorians who had only this encyclopedia, a Bible, and the novels of Dickens from which to create the lions' share of their world-knowledge.  In the course of all that browsing, I discovered several things that furthered the plot of my novel such as the fact that the encyclopedia had quite a few translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics words and phrases (plot point!), or that there were little snippets of Victorian poetry throughout.  I was surprised to learn that as far back as the late 1880s most scientists had a strong feeling that the invention of lighter-than-aircraft was only a few years away.  How prescient was that!

What projects are you working on right now? (Weren’t you working on a board game at one point? Wasn’t there going to be a musical of Ella Minnow Pea?).

In between working on edits of American Decameron, I've been spending time with an old play from around 2000 that I didn't do much with back then, as well as a science fiction Young Adult novel I've been working on now and then for the last eight years.  Alas, I had to give up my quixotic dream of becoming a game designer since there is no more competitive industry on this planet and especially in this day in which Hasbro has cornered 90 percent of the board game market (and has its own in-house designers).  Not that I don't have at least five games either prototyped or living in my head.  The Ella Minnow Pea musical premiered about three years ago at the University of Michigan and its book writer/lyricist and composer have taken it through a few more rewrites before hooking up with a theatre company in New York where I believe it's slated for a workshop production next year.  I'm not too well looped into the project at this point.  They just keep paying their option every year and I try to make sure it doesn't get too expensive for them since they're very talented and I'd love to see them eventually get a good New York production.

Thanks, Mark!

my first look at Measuring Matthew and T Plays announcement

Tonight I'll get to see the film version of Measuring Matthew for the first time, at a screening for the cast and crew.  I haven't seen any of the assembled edit yet, so I'm curious, nervous, and excited.

There's other good news coming up, most of which isn't quite ready for public announcement quite yet, but I did find out that I'll be writing for Mill 6's T Plays in June, featuring plays written on and about the T.  I love writing for this series, and the other plays I've created for it, Recognition and Escape to Wonderland, have gone on to be produced in other theatres around the country.  Can't wait to see what we come up with this time.
 

Juggler Interviews, #8: Donna Hoke

Donna is a fellow member of the Playwright Submission Binge, the big online community dedicated to marketing for playwrights that I started about ten years ago.  In addition to being a playwright, she also edits and writes for magazines and newspapers, creates crossword puzzles, oh, and also happens to be a single mom of two sets of twins.  If that doesn't qualify her as an extreme juggler, I don't know what does.  She took a few minutes to answer questions on how she does it.


Okay, you’re a single mom with four kids, and you’re writing plays, magazine articles, a children’s book, crossword puzzles.  How do you find the time to get any writing done?   (Or get anything done.)

My girls are 17 and my boys are 11 (two sets of twins), so obviously getting things done is a little easier now than it was when they were younger, but this season, I'm juggling three baseball teams, so very often it's not by much! In my old house, my desk was in the playroom; in this house, my office is often where everybody ends up even though it's the smallest room in the house. When they were younger, and I needed a couple of hours, I'd send them to clean their room because I knew they'd get caught up in something and, thinking they were supposed to be cleaning, not come back for a while. When they were younger still, I sometimes had an interview scheduled and would have to stick them in their cribs for thirty minutes so I knew they'd be safe while I was on the phone. I really hated that.

Having twins did make it easier in some ways because they always had someone to play with, so it wasn't always "Mom, come play Barbies." Still, I've been on my own with them since they were three and eight, and it's forever been a case of squeezing work in between the cracks, which has included some pretty late hours, a lot of sacrificed time, and a lot of guilt. I don't recommend it as a way to work, but I was always here, and I hope that there's something to be said for quantity time over quality time. (I worry that they'll ultimately remember me as "that woman behind the desk"!) I do try to make sure we always sit down to dinner together and, that when things are slow, I give the time to them. I schedule time with them, too, actually put it on the calendar, so I know we'll do it. And I have a self-imposed rule to not be out more than two nights unless absolutely necessary. One saving grace is that they think the things I do are cool, and have told me they're proud of me. That helps.

So on top of all this, I started writing plays four years ago! Since I don't really make any money at it, people always ask why and, especially how. Why? Because it was a writing outlet I needed to have after years of writing magazine articles. I'd tried short stories, and I dabble in poetry, but after writing my first scene, I knew this was it. And how? Whenever I can. Because of my lifestyle, my writing is a lot of percolating and note taking and then, when I can find a few quiet hours, I turn those things into pages. Years of practice writing on deadline is helpful then.    

It seems like you’re working on a lot of things at once.  Do you find that you work on one project until it’s at a good stopping point, and then move to the next, or are you able to move back and forth fairly fluidly?

It's all ongoing. At any given time, I might have editorial planning (I'm the editor of four local semi-annual magazines), assigning, editing, proofreading, writing, a crossword assignment, and a play in the works. In fact, right now is one of those times! I prioritize everything according to deadline and, every day, I have a list that I do my best to work through. I live by that list. If my kids need me to do things, they know how to get them done: put them on the list. When there is no paid work that needs to be done on a given day, I do playwriting. That's the best way I can find to balance it.


I’m intrigued by your work with crosswords.  How long does it take to construct one?  Do you find that it helps your other writing?  I would think the mental nimbleness would actually be helpful for both writing both plays and articles.

How long it takes depends on the size: the bigger it is, the longer it takes. And if a theme for a larger puzzle is particularly complicated, it can take a very long time. I think making crosswords makes me better at doing crosswords but I'm not sure it helps with writing, at least not in any quantifiable way. Ironically, I never did them before I made them, but now I enjoy them very much. I got into making them through a combination of ignorance and audacity, but it's been a fun ride. When I set up my website, I added custom crosswords and I've been surprised by the response. I've recently made gift puzzles for a Washington Post columnist and a Texas state senator. It's fun working with the clients because they're so excited that they have thought of this perfect gift; they really get into working on it with me. And when I've had puzzles in the New York Times, it's fun to know that Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton are doing them.

Donna's also written a children's book.

How did you get into writing magazine and newspaper articles?  I’ve often thought about doing it, to make some extra money, but it seems very hard to break into.  Have you been doing it long enough that you have relationships with editors, so they come to you, or are you constantly writing proposals for more articles?

I went to school for Speech Pathology and Audiology; I loved the subject matter and did well with it, but it became painfully clear to everyone once I began working in schools that it wasn't for me. I graduated with a BS, then stayed on another year taking 21 credits of English a semester to get a BA. After I got the BA, I moved to the New York city area and applied for magazine jobs. I worked for seven years full-time, freelancing even as I did for former employers and as the Entertainment Editor for Silent News, the newspaper for deaf readers (a great way to combine my degrees). When my daughters were born prematurely and I'd used all my leave for bedrest, I opted to stay home. When a couple of calls started coming in, I realized I didn't have to go back to full-time work. Without that full-time experience, though, I don't know that I'd have been able to succeed as a freelancer. It helps enormously to know how the whole thing works, to gain experience being edited, etc. It also helps you make contacts; I still get work from editors I worked with in my very first job. I think I've been able to maintain it for so long because I rarely say no to an assignment (you never know where it might lead), and I never miss a deadline. You wouldn't believe how many writers think deadlines are suggestions.

Parker Morrison, Amber Scott and Justin Hambey rehearse Write This Way at Santa Ana's Theatre Out

When did you start writing plays?  What drew you to theatre after working in other forms for so long?  (It certainly wasn’t for the money.)

I've always loved theater, though living in New Jersey with young children, I didn't get to as much as I would have liked. When I moved to Buffalo in 2004, there was so much theater and it was so accessible. I immediately got a subscription to Road Less Traveled Theater because I liked their dual mission: to bring younger people into theater and to showcase local playwrights. RLTT had a new play workshop and, back in 2004, it had few members and it seemed they produced nearly everything that came out of it. At some point, I thought, "I should try this." So I wrote my first play, COCKEYED TODAY, and applied for and got into the 2009 workshop.

That year, it had really taken off and had ten playwrights; at the same time, RLTT adjusted its mission so that were not doing only local playwrights. This was a good thing, because it raised the bar for everything they did.  I loved the workshop and the playwright community, and I learned so much. The following year, I submitted another play, THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR; RLTT opened their season with it in 2010, and the play become their second highest-grossing play in their eight-year history, and the highest-grossing world premiere. That gave me a little more confidence, so I started sending out my work. I've had quite a few nibbles and readings on COUPLE, but no second production yet, and my short plays have been produced in cities across the country, and also in Seoul and Manchester.

 


The Buffalo theater community has been very good to me. I've had or will have work produced in four theaters here, and read in a fifth. And last month, I became an ensemble playwright at RLTT, which is an honor because I really believe in this company. I love that I can be so active locally because it's very hard for me to do the physical networking that seems to be necessary to get things done. Maybe someday when my kids are grown, I can go to conferences more easily or, with any luck, a residency. I have eight years to get to that point so it's a goal.

As for the scene for new plays, it's pretty incredible; we're able to support a pretty large playwriting community here. In November, I wrote a blog post for 2amt, and I counted that up to that early point in the season, we'd already seen productions of thirteen new plays in Buffalo. Nobody realizes what a vibrant and active theater community we have here, the second largest in the state outside of New York, with twenty-plus professional or semi-professional theater companies and the second largest free outdoor Shakespeare festival in the country, second only to NYC. I'm starting to sound like a commercial, so I'll share this video for anybody who really wants to know more: 

But in short, I'm a fan of and an ambassador for all we do here. In fact, I should also mention that this past Sunday, for the first time, the Dramatists Guild came to run a town hall meeting here for our playwrights and named me their newest regional rep. It's exciting for us that we're being noticed, and they seemed impressed with the opportunity here.

You’re offering a free online play workshop—what’s that all about?  How does it work?

Essentially, I thought I would be a liaison for playwrights who want feedback on their plays from other playwrights. If you give me your name, I put you on a list. If you read somebody's play and offer quality feedback, you earn a credit which you can then use to have a play of yours read. It's very informal, and is just another tool that playwrights can use when they're developing plays.    

What’s coming up for you, in terms of new plays being produced or developed, or articles and books?    

I'm currently co-curating a play festival for Buffalo United Artists called BUA Takes Ten: GLBT short plays, and I'll also have a play in it, as well as in Subversive Shorts in June. Road Less Traveled will premiere my play, SEEDS, in March 2013, and I am developing FLOWERS IN THE DESERT in the current workshop. I've also got short plays coming up in Montana, California, Washington. Magazine-wise, I'm always either assigning, editing, proofing, writing, or closing one. I just did a profile of A.R. Gurney, who will visit Buffalo in May as Road Less Traveled's American Theater Master; it's fun when I can combine interests that way. And I'm marketing my kids' book, Neko and the Twiggets (www.nekoandthetwiggets.com)--about a family of mice who live in a an orchestra member's double bass-- to orchestra gift shops across the country.

Any tips for writers who are also parents on how to balance writing and family?

   

I think being organized helps tremendously, but you know, it's like when people ask me, "How do you manage two sets of twins?" I don't know any different, and I just do it. I know that's not very helpful!

That's the way it works, though isn't it?  Thanks for taking the time, Donna!

You can learn more about Donna's work at her website:  www.donnahoke.com