depression of the economic variety

Yeah. That.

It's definitely affecting the theatre world. Ticket sales are slumping, donations from corporations are slumping, theatres are closing, theatres are pulling back on accepting new plays, being more picky about what they accept and some are putting on hiatus new play development, contests, etc.

What's a young playwright to do?

First, be depressed. At least that's what I'm doing. See, here's the problem I've had. There's people better than me out there, so they will get the stuff I want (readings, productions, whatever). Paranoia of that sort. Then add in that I have NO IDEA what I'm doing when it comes to submitting, and that equals depression.

Then, I will make a plan. This includes:

• being more aware of where I am sending work. My budget is tighter too, so I will send stuff to people I think I have the very best chance with.
• being more aware of what is going on online. There's a playwright's website I've been involved with, and I will try to be more involved with it.
• reading the vast library of plays I've accumulated. Hendrix had a library sale last year and I came away with a crate of plays. A lot of them I wasn't familiar with, many of them were by playwrights I knew of, or plays I had heard of. So I need to start reading them and learning from them.
• keep writing. it's the best way to get through until things get better.

I'm still wrestling with 'Grace Kelly' and I am going to get some plays together and such for my weekend writing retreat with Bill next month. I'll be doing some work on 'In the Bunker' for sure, so we'll see how that comes along.

Subtext is hard to learn about. I'm working hard on it. It's been the single biggest struggle I've had with playwriting so far, but I think it's going to be VERY good for me in the end. When it breaks through, it will BREAK through.

Back to the grind with school. Writing retreat is coming.

Ps.....

I don't talk a lot about my personal life on here, but I got engaged a week ago. :)