Monday was a holiday, but honestly by Friday I had completely forgotten that I’d had a short week. It was just THAT busy.
My first Tuesday class of the semester met this week. It’s basically a continuation of last semester’s short-plays workshop, just like Thursday’s class is a continuation of the full-length workshop. This semester though the class feels a lot more structured, with an actual syllabus and assigned readings. Last semester the format was much looser, and we pretty much brought in ten-minute plays whenever we had them ready. The structure will most likely be a good thing for me and force me to keep writing regularly, but it will be challenging. We have an assignment for the next class—we’re supposed to overhear a conversation someplace in public, write it down verbatim, and then use it as a jumping-off point to create a scene. The problem is I haven’t heard any interesting conversations yet. And I’m afraid if I start eavesdropping on the T that any conversation I write down will very quickly devolve into “Who is that weird girl writing down everything I say???” We also have a small mountain of ten-minute plays to read for next week.
I met with my professor on Wednesday to talk about my full-length play. I was supposed to set up a time to meet with her at school, but I told her that my work schedule is crazy and that I work ten-hour days on non-class days, and she was really nice and offered to meet me closer to my house during my lunch break (since I work from home and it takes an hour on the T into BU). So I met up with her in Davis Square in Somerville and had a really great discussion about my play and where it’s going and how to get it finished. I’m shooting for having the first draft done and ready to be workshopped in class on February 11. I’m not quite sure yet just how that is going to happen, but it will. There will likely be lots of coffee involved.
Friday we had a special “skills lab” with BU’s undergrad actors and graduate directors at the College of Fine Arts. We do a couple of these every semester, and they’re always fun. I had to take a half vacation day from work to be able to make it though since it met during the day. We all bring in a scene or two, and each of us gets a group of actors and a director to work with. The actors read through the scene and then we all talk about it, and the director talks about how he/she sees the scene working, and then we usually try to go through it once more with the actors moving around or trying different things. It’s helpful for everyone because the actors get a chance to see what it’s like working with brand-new plays still in development, the directors get to experience working with new material and interacting with playwrights, and the playwrights get some really helpful feedback and a chance to work with a director. Which is important since theater by nature is such a collaborative process. After the skills lab was over, six of us from class went out to grab dinner. I love when I actually have time to be able to see my classmates outside of the theater instead of having to rush home and work.
I have so much to get done for this week. I need to get working on my full-length if I want it done by the 11th, and I have that conversation assignment due on Tuesday. I also have to write a one-page proposal for a travel fellowship, but I will talk more about that next time because it deserves its own entry. Now it is time to get started on the aforementioned small mountain of ten-minute plays I need to read.