The American Gameshow: Your Money or Your Life?

 The retitled 'working poor' should understand that the GOP's $200/week unemployment offer is designed by ppl who 'overstand' how the economy works. Like a demented gameshow host, the 'inherited rich class' is making you choose between your life and your work. This has been your choice for a long time, but it is even more grossly inhumane when 150,000 Americans have died in 5 months due to government incompetence. Despite the fact that we have the largest unemployment since the Great Depression and many people can not get jobs, this is the binary choice: your money or your life. Despite the fact that many people are facing the greatest wave of evictions in the nation's history due to no fault of their own, they want you to leave your family to beg for work that does not exist. This is a false choice created by the inherited rich class to get you to do what they want within a horror game. This has always been a false choice. There is no other Western nation making citizens choose between life or work in the middle of a global pandemic. And when this pandemic is over this will continue to be the false choice offered to the working poor: your money or your life.

You have been living in this gameshow your entire life. The audience applause is tape recorded. Someone pressed the button every time the phrase 'vital worker' or 'hero' is spoken. They hit the applause button every time 1,000 Americans die every day. Heroes, heroes...applause...now keep going. They'll keep hitting that button so that you know they admire what a great gameshow contestant you are...you are so invested in choosing the 'obstacle course of death' as you race against your working poor contestants. You beat them up, scramble over each other, you crawl and fight for crumbs and then one celebrates in a pit of shit as they hold the shiny prize.  They got the golden ticket which means the 'winner' gets a weekend trip to a hotel somewhere facing a body of water. This is the occasional and arbitrary reward in the gameshow so that you'll keep playing. In your desperation you create unintentional moments of comedy. You slip, you fall at work, you get carpal tunnel syndrome and try to continue carrying on, limping, shuffling along. The studio audience laughs. You pop pills, rub ointments, and inject yourself with pain killer so you can continue playing. The finish line keeps moving...maybe you can retire at 60, no 70...no 75...if you're lucky. Keeping running the obstacle course, keep fighting your fellow contestants, trip up the black one, kick the brown one, don't let them win. The studio audience's 'ohhhs and ahhhs.' You keep playing the game. You keep voting for new gameshow hosts but the choice is still the same: your money or your life.

Early Morning Notebook: Mid Summer of an Election Yr

Lincoln Project Energy: we did not become Republicans to be THIS racist in public. We have to work...in an office.

Evangelical Energy: God gave me social security so I could have the peace and comfort to vote for people trying to take it away from me.

Irony: if Georgia and Florida elected the blk Dem they would have shutdown earlier, with more force, and been out of the pandemic quicker...and Trump would be more popular in those states b/c the residents wouldn't have suffered the consequences of GOP policy. But also your conservative white grand daddy might also be alive b/c of those blk dems...so he could vote for Trump. Oh the lasagna layers of America's wacky moral compass. Blk ppl saving old white ppl so they can go out and hurt blk ppl in order to get rich white ppl who will kill poor white ppl...and then blame invisible Mexicans and ANTIFA. And the sick poor white ppl will hate these imaginary libs until their last dying, covid-diseased breath. Afterward, real Mexicans and gays move into their homes, spruce up the neighborhood, and increase property value. And then they'll get kicked out by rich white ppl.

Werking Poor: now that unemployment is at 20% can we just go back to calling ppl poor? 'Working class' is really just poor-in-training. And most ppl accept the title b/c we carry a lot of shame around money. But the majority of the country was and is one paycheck from disaster...aka poor. And the top 1% call you 'working class' so you don't think about the systemic reality. But really you are the "working poor." You will spend most of life on the edge of poverty AND you will have to work your ass off just to stay alive. And so will your children. Your pension, healthcare, housing, and education was, is and will continue to be under constant attack by the rich because it is psychological warfare to get you to be meek and scared and ashamed...and unable to see that there are far more working poor people than the 'inherited rich class.' It has nothing to do with pleasing Jesus or 'working' into or up from your class. You are the working poor. And until you change the economic model, the rich will just try to hide the reality from you by giving you fancy aspirational titles while denying you basic human dignities.

Pitch Mode: Notes from an Agent

1. Personal stories/ connection to the concept.

Think of a personal anecdote to introduce this idea and convince them that this is a story born out of your own conviction and it is also a story that only you can tell.  Show them that you are the unique writer who can truly bring this story to light.

2. Ideas, Themes, and Concepts.

A. What is your show about thematically?

B. What are you saying with the show, what cord does it strike?

3. Pitch an anecdote from the show that demonstrates what it is you’re writing about and shows the potential of the series.  A common practice is to pitch the teaser to set up the premise and the characters.

4. Characters in the series.

A. Pitch the main characters and their respective relationships to each other. The characters should bring a strong point of view to our central themes.

B. As you describe each character, think of a character beat you can tell about each of them to give them more life.

5. Tone of the show.

A. Discuss examples of what our show will be similar to. Pacing, humor, style, etc.

6. Week to week.  What are we watching each week?

A. What is the episodic nature of the show. What happens each week.

B. Setting, A stories, B stories, why the characters will be together.


A good practice is to think about shows you like and imagine you are the creator and are pitching those shows, how would you do so?


In total, think 10-15 minutes max, but a general rule is the shorter the better without leaving anything out.  The more concise and clearer, the better the pitch. 

Silent Giving

I've been practicing the art of silent giving the last week. No explanation, no 'thank you's' or follow-ups. Just giving and not putting any words to it. To see someone and something as pure is difficult. I feel like we always want a follow-up, a summary, a commitment of where the money is going. The list reduces the purity. The explanation turns what could be holy back into regular donation. Some times it is better to sit with the silence.

Silence in a culture so used to praise, admonishment, condemnation, heroism is difficult. The lack of judgment or 'normal storytelling' can uncomfortable. But I am trying to let that silence wash over me. Let it wash the discomfort, the unease, the need to be appreciated. I am letting it just be so that all the excuses and default thinking can float away. If I maintain the silence, I am leaving room for the divine.

Mom Memory: Protests

1963: We didn't have anybody like John Lewis in our area but we were concerned about what’s happening in Daytona Beach. There was one restaurant that was very well known... Morrison’s. They would let Black people have food but you had to come in through the service entrance and you couldn’t sit down. It was only takeout. So we did a non-violent protest in front of Morrison’s.
So I was marching in a circle in front of Morrison’s with other students. And this middle-aged white lady kept bumped when I walked by. And she kept bumping me. And by the fourth time she came by... I bumped her. I gave her an elbow. And she was shocked...she was shocked that I would do something like that to her (what she had been doing to me).

 On the way home...we’re walking back to campus and a redneck pulled up alongside of us in a truck and said ‘your president is dead! Your president is dead.” We didn’t know what he was talking about. When we got back to the campus we learned that Kennedy had been shot. I had an afternoon class in German and I went to the class and the professor said in Spanish ‘no class today.' Close your books. And we went to the dormitories. It was a Friday. Same day as John Lewis’s death this past week...a Friday. November 22nd 1963.

We did a sit-in at Woolworth Drugstore in Miami. They had a big counter where you could get sandwiches. I went down to participate but all the older black teenagers were already in the counter seats. White guys were calling them names, pulling them by the collars, but the black teens didn’t respond. But those were the days. White and Black fountains in Miami. Did they think the water was coming out of a different place? Oh well.

2020: The Year of Clarity

This year ain't crazy. This year is just blunt. 2020 showing y'all what's been going on for real, no chaser, no nuance, no fancy rhetoric. We are living in a stone-cold, dead-ass sober reality of the way things have been...just exposed. The truth just looks crazy to ppl who are used to accepting lies. But we live in a crazy existence. We've been living in an unsustainable, burning, collapsing interlocking web of failing systems. The calls to #wearamask and #defundthepolice and #medicareforall and #universalbasicincome and #studentloanforgiveness and #freecollege are coming from a triggered awakening that every single mode of life has been desecrated and dehumanized by capitalism. People don't want to wear a mask in stores b/c they literally don't care if the employees get sick b/c they don't even see them as human beings worth valuing.The same cops that are beating protestors asses on Monday will be worried about their pensions getting ripped off by Wall Street on Friday. And they're not even aware that they're beating up protestors to protect moneyed interests who are actively trying to rip them off. If there was sanity, cops would be marching with protestors. The avg cop shouldn't be the community therapist, doctor, counselor. They're bad at it and cause harm. The community and the cop would be better served by an actual system that cares about human beings.

This year is a reckoning of our lifestyle and ethical systems. Human civilization has been around for 6,000 years. It only took Western Civilization 300 yrs to burn through all the natural resources, poison every oceans, create the concept of race to divide every single group against each other, inject hot liquid waste into the ground to bring up trash oil, create man-made earthquakes, spawn antibiotic-resistant superbugs, explode cancer rates, and almost wipe out all humans a few times by threatening to nuke ourselves off the planet. And in return we got...Pokemon Go and disposable diapers. And this is the height of Western European idealism: blind racism, insanely self-destructive greed, and the individual's desire for abstract things (like money and power) destroying the greater good of actual physical things needed for survival. We did it! Well, you did it mostly Western European civilization. Take a bow. Your apex is our death convulsion, and the GOP is the nadir of ahistorical racism, propaganda, and fanatic anti-intellectualism. But hey, what did those other continents of people do beside create self-sustaining, non-destructive systems of living with the world...aka all the models of successful civilizations. Too bad all these eco-friendly, culturally-dynamic, non-racist 'barbarians' were wiped out by guns, germs, and religious fanatics from Western Europe who were 'clearly superior' because they had grown resistant to their own diseases, superstitions disguised as genetic science, and biological as well psychological toxicity. We live in the abyss of Eurocentric capitalism and materialism. Life is devalued, earth is poisoned, and everyone looks around for a scapegoat amidst a global plague.

 If there was sanity, people would have social distanced and worn a mask for 3 months (march, april, may) and we would be OUT of this crisis. We would have seen rates plummet. If there was any social sense Congress would have paid ppl's salary for 3 months so that rent doesn't get jammed up, mortgages don't go into default, and the economy can go on while ppl stay out of harm's way...so they can actually go back to work at 100%. In every single area of life, there is fundamental misunderstanding of our purpose on this planet. And after 4 months in which an administration aided and abetted the death of 140,000 Americans you wouldn't have the majority of white ppl still okay with that reality...unless deep down inside they don't care that 140,000 mothers, sisters, fathers, brothers are dead...mostly out of incompetence and cruelty that could have been avoided. We stand on mass graves created by our ignorance, greed, cruelty, and indifference to human beings. But at least scientists are designing cardboard hospital bed that can immediately be folded into coffins. At least the graves of our choices are now biodegradable.

Knowing Your Worth vs. Your Value

This week my manager told me how much my tv contract should be next year. I was taken aback for two reasons: 1) it was an unusually high amount and 2) value appraisal was a concept I was unfamiliar with as a playwright.

On the first point, the number he listed sounded unusually high...but then I realized that maybe I underestimated myself in regard to my worth in the system.

I have been well trained by the ethics of theatre to be happy and grateful and to fit within the confines of an institution. The universal thought when dealing with major theatre organizations is a) you should be happy to be in the room and b) the artist is the last to get paid. In lieu of payment, an emerging talent will get exposure and accolades. They will get a feature spread in a magazine and a glossy picture on their website while shiny new artists struggles to pay their bills. The artist is just happy to be on the page and getting exposure: their expenses, rent, and livelihood is their concern, even if the artist's emerging shimmer helps attract donors to the theatre company.

But what if it's the complete opposite of my understanding? What if the prestigious organizations are just empty shells without the genius and passion of artists? What if the institutions should be making their budget according to the needs of the artists first and then all its other things second? After all, people don't go to theatre for the admin. Just like how the major agency tried to instill fear in the Writers Guild by telling us how valuable packaging was for film...no one goes to a movie because of the really sweet package CAA and WME arranged between the writer, director, and producers. It is a delusion of middle men who elevate themselves into the central role in art that allows for artists to be treated last and in the worst way. But the really dynamic is between the artist and the audience. That's it. That's the entire process of theatre. Anything that gets between those two factors is the middle man. The packaging the marketing the website...they all play second fiddle to the actual content. This isn't some pie-in-the-sky altruism. There have been many theatres who rise to the forefront, acquire a lot of money, start producing mediocre work, inflate their own value beyond what the artist is providing...and then they die. Theatres die all the time. They die by hubris or board-homicide or admin mismanagement. There is NO arts organization that dies because of the artists. There is no theatre that dies because they have overcommitted to the artists because quality artists are inherently NOT greedy. The top quality theatremakers are almost always obsessed with the work. They are

Out of the first point comes my second: in this system I had underestimation my worth to the system and my artistic value. When the arts institutions is valued over the artist, then the individual talent is just a budget item, and that item is low on the spreadsheet. But there is something deeper than my worth to a system and that's actual value. Personal value is independent of the organization. It is an ethical awareness why my art is priceless. The payment -whatever the amount- is paltry.

This is all very difficult to understand for American artists because we live in a capitalist system created out of slavery. In our system labor is intentionally denigrated. We value management over labor, In almost all situations, a worker is told that if they work hard enough, they can become a manager of sorts. A screenwriter is told that -if they're successful enough- maybe one day they can direct. A director is told that if they work hard enough, they can produce. A producer is told that if they're successful enough, they can run a studio, and on and on it goes. The flowchart is always up and away from actually producing something and more toward the management of the people who do the producing. A teacher will one day be a vice principal and then principal and maybe even run a school system, but the teaching itself is less valued as you go up the ladder..even though teaching IS the thing at the heart of our education system. Great directors in theatre will eventually be offered the chance to become an artistic director because an AD gets to manage other directors. They are further away from the process of creation and therefore -in our upside-down world of American capitalism- they are more worthy. In our model, the less you do the more valuable you become. So the artist at the crux of arts institutions -is the least valued component because they DO ALL THE ART. The dream of arts org is the same as the factory worker and the teacher and the store clerk: to rise above doing the thing the organization exists to serve or make.

In TV, there is a funny loophole: it's a writers medium. As much as networks and productions companies may try (and believe me they do try) American tv model is about cranking out story. TV is a plot monster and writers' room is the point where storytellers form like Voltron to create the massive tonnage of story needed for a season. The power dynamic is different in other countries. In the UK, the writer is king but because a typical season of British tv is 6-8 episodes, there is less need of a writers' room. An individual writer can crank out everything, so it seems empowering. But really what happens is that there is less opportunity for working writers to organize and talk under that system. They are each in charge of their little ship and focused on that. Canadian tv is producer run and -according to many of my Canadian friends- awful. The writer comes second. American tv rules the world because -by some weird flux of history- they actually put the content-creators in a room together so they could talk/organize/unionize and build. The revolution in American tv has flowed out to other countries. British TV is becoming more like America, not the other way around. And American TV writers get paid more than their international counterparts. They have better healthcare, more rights, better leverage (except for movies where the director/manager still rules).

The talk I had with my manager made me rethink all the ways I've been operating in theatre. It made me look at myself differently. I have less groveling in my voice when I go into an institution because I know they should be lucky to have me...not the other way around. And there is power in knowing your value. 

4AM musings....

Blk ppl's views on race age like our skin: no cracks. Listen to 1960s Baldwin or 1990s Sister Souljah. You'll hear drumtight, baby-skin truth. In other words, there is no extra step or evolution necessary in blk ppl's understanding of white America. We been knew. We understand and overstand the situation. It's not b/c we're soulful spirits or magical negroes with psychic powers or talk to the 'city of bones' through special wind chimes.

We've just been saying what our mothers and fathers told us. And they've been saying what our grandparents said, and on and on it goes like a seemingly endless chain. That's why an 18-year-old black activist can express more truth and wisdom in a short clip than a 80-year-old white senator. We've been saying the same timeless, flawless truth. We made songs about it, stitched it into quilts, gave speeches, expounded on it during debates, breakdanced to it, chanted protest anthems, marched. We've encoded it into our culture b/c it's a matter of our survival.  It's our beauty secret, our truth serum, our burning sage to clear the air.

That's why some blks find it exhausting when white ppl ask for education. It's like we've been saying 'the house is on fire' for 3 hrs and your white colleague is like 'wait...you sound upset. Calm down and let's try to figure out what WE need to understand about this situation?' This is not a negotiation where I say 'the house is on fire' and you say 'okay but the upstairs closets aren't on fire right now so maybe you need to calm down and see my perspective.' Bitch the house is on fire. The kitchen, closets, and bathrooms will be on fire soon b/c that's the way toxicity spreads. There's no partial shutdown of an inferno. You can't shut down the downstairs living room on fire, but keep the upstairs bedrooms open b/c the fire isn't there yet.

The segregated un-reality of white America doesn't understand how racism works, how viruses work, why you need to wear a mask, how we're all interconnected, how one county having a surge in sickness means we all going to get it. That's why the rest of the world perfectly understands coronavirus and white America is going up in flames. Comprehensive, holistic, reality doesn't penetrate people who live a fractured existent that allows its viewers to hold their feelings with the same importance as facts. The unreality kills because it lives in a world in which black ppl doing drugs in the 90s was a crime-based problem and white people doing drugs now is a health crisis.

Blk ppl continue to say the same thing. And we have to both maintain complete calm so they don't upset white ppl, say the same goddamn thing AGAIN, pretend like it's brand new, and then coddle the awakening in their white colleague like a 'race nanny.' And we do all of this while the house is on fire. We do all this while being the most likely to die first in the blaze. 

Theatre BIPOC and Cognitive Dissonance

It's weird that I came to nyc to do theatre, hung out with theatre friends and knew precisely ZERO POC who were happy about their place in theatre. I had cognitive dissonance. I heard what they were saying, I saw the statistics, and some part of me thought 'yeah I'll be different though.' Maybe I thought 'I'll just work harder or be more talented than you' or maybe the dysfunction felt normalized and baked into the process. I guess part of the reason I didn't pause and reflect on the universal dissatisfaction among my peers is because there was no time. We were all in pursuit of a new contests, new fellowships, an opening pipelines. The small % of POC that did win the prizes were still unhappy, boxed-in, uncomfortable in their settings...and that didn't register with me b/c I thought 'well they're just not using their opportunity in the right way.'  I thought it was just a matter of class, so I hung out with POC artists who were at least making a living out of theatre...and these folks were low-key morose and ill-at-ease, paranoid, scarred. Next, I thought I just needed to go the right school. I got into Juilliard and still saw the frustration among my peers. Then I thought 'I need to be around other POC artists.' I moved into a house with an amazing dancer/choreographer, a great actor, and wonderful singer...all POC. They all had the same discomfort, struggle, grind, questioning 'is it just that I'm not being smart enough or is it something else I can't do anything about?' This went on for years and years...POC artists grinding down the best years of their life for pennies on the dollar and footnotes in the glossy magazine of theatre success.

Conversely, when I entered the tv and film world 6 yrs ago there were lots of POC who seemed rather sane and content. Granted, things are not perfect and there are many problems in Hollywood and there were still unhappy, scarred, crazy and damaged black artists. But there was also many black and latino artists who seemed to be...okay, fine...dare I say...happy. Maturity led me to see that being 'okay' wasn't a sign of mediocrity, and being 'tortured and impoverished' was not a gold star of genius...but perhaps it was a part of my development. In tv I met POC artists who had their basic financial needs met and could see a pathway toward greater artistic expression. And it's not like I was running around Hollywood with Shonda Rhimes or Tyler Perry. Most of my peers were/are low-level writers or people just starting off. But there was a sense of a pathway. I think It's why so many black playwrights leave theatre forever once they get a taste of sanity. I think its why my agent reacted to news about my new theatre project -after working in TV for year- with a pause before saying 'oh, you still do theatre?!? How cute!' It was as if I told her I still made mashed potato castles out of my tv dinner or liked to drink from a sippy cup. Adorable!

Once you've left the psychiatric ward that is the American theatre and had the chance to live in your own apartment for a while, it's weird to get a call from the ward saying 'hey, a great bed opened up for you and there's 50% less vomit on the mattress...wanna come? It's a new fellowship program named after the Rockefeller family where we give POC artist a smelly mattress and some Ritz crackers and let them write for a month. ' In that moment, you realize what an insane life you led b/c a few years ago you would have jumped at that queen-size bed in the psych unit with less vomit. You would have thought 'I WON theatre!' Now you look at it...and feel sad, like 'oh wow...this hurts my heart that you think you're doing me a favor. This hurts my heart that I used to believe this WAS the prize. This hurts that other POC artist inside that ward will be fighting over that bed.

Over time it seemed like the sanity and stability of tv leaked over into theatre. I started getting opportunities to tell stories I cared about at Skylight Theatre in LA, Seattle Public Theatre, Miami New Drama, Lean Ensemble in South Carolina. My plays got produced in London by amazing actors and directors. It felt like my mental seeds for dysfunction were burning away like smog and now I could clearly see sane theatre people with money and a good attitude. Maybe they were there the whole time. Whatever the case, we need more of them. 

Notebook: Protest is Performance And Performance is Protest

Now is the time for protests and performance in both big and small ways. Now is the time sign petitions, make statements, participate in marches, virtue-signal, draft press releases in support of #BlackLivesMatter. I will take all of it, the shallow and the deeply felt, the instagram celebs and the poignant moments of truth. I do not differentiate. History will sort out truth from fiction. But right now, I think we should be encouraging people to act in any way they can because this is all apart of a grand public performance.

 Most protest is performative activism. I love Tonya Pinkins's medium article titled "Why I'm Fed Up with Performative Activism" but some people have taken this idea as a cudgel to bash any metaphorical protests. You're tossing performative around like it's a negative thing. The most effective protests throughout history have been performative metaphors that are theatrical-ized by people. The Boston Tea Party was performative...a bunch of white dudes got dressed up like Native Americans and dumped tea into the harbor. Did the tea dump do vital damage to the British Empire? No. Were the protestors only upset about tea prices? No. Yet, the performance of that small act was a metaphor that galvanized other people. A small group of people perform a metaphor that sticks in the mind's of people...yes it IS like theatre. 

-what you're really talking about is the difference between an effective performance and ineffective performance as protest. So what makes an effective performance? Well first off there is timing and attention...

-Remember National School Walkout? Students across the country participated in anti-gun violence.  In some small towns there was no groundswell of support. But there was one student who walked out for an hour, or one student who stood on the street by themselves. What difference can one student make? Nothing. But it was performative gesture, it was the right time, and it got attention b/c someone took a picture of it. And the images of those individual students was as powerful and poignant as the thousands of people walking out together. Why? Because it struck a heroic note of -even if I am the last person- I'm going to do the right thing. 

Ppl judge situations by 3 factors: 1) is the cause good or bad 2) is the protests active or passive 3) does it come across as strong or weak? Gandhi's 1930 Salt March was to protest British law forbidding Indians from making their own salt. He was going to take a long walk to the ocean and then make salt from the water. Salt is a pure and clean image in people's mind. It comes from the earth, it is a natural thing. The salt march takes something seemingly mundane and charges it with political and spiritual meaning. A walk becomes 1) virtuous 2) strong 3) active in opposing the British Crown. His adversaries look evil and foolish because they're stopping a kindly old man from taking a walk and  making salt out of ocean water.  MLK repeated this strategy in Selma. He took a walk across a bridge. Like Gandhi he had the perfect visual metaphor: an actual bridge both black and white people were going to cross. The performative metaphor and its context allowed the protestors to do the right thing, be strong, and be active by taking a walk, praying, walking some more. The evil of segregation would be highlighted by King walking across a bridge. Did he need to literally walk across that bridge to get somewhere? No. It's not like his house was on the other side. But did we -as a nation- need him to walk across that bridge so that WE could get somewhere? Absolutely. 

-AIDS Quilt is performative, ACT UP's 'die-in's are performative and theatrical. Later on, #BLM repeated the same tactic by laying their bodies on the ground and pretending to be dead. 

- Tiananmen Square tank guy is performative. We all know the tank could've crushed him or a soldier could have walked out and arrested him and dragged him away. The performance was a game of chicken: I dare you to show how brutal you are to your citizens in secret prisons...but in public.

-This is why theatre ppl love protests. Yes we are a vain and narcissistic bunch, but we're also looking for the metaphors in our lives that take mundane things and charge them with meaning. 

- So what good does a performative statement do from a corporation during this crisis? It serves as a record. It is an apology and a promissory note. Generally  most people think 'out of sight, out of mind' but that promise to do better doesn't die. Like the truth, it travels underground and builds and grows. Wickedness thrives in silence and off-the-record. That's why Black people are all about records. Our entrance into this country was as a matter of trade records. We keep lists and notes and details. Like Nina Simone's "Pirate Jenny" there is a day of reckoning. There is a time when the bill must be paid and we have all the receipts. So get your company, your theatre, your boss, your local org to make those #BLM statements. Get them on record because they're going to forget. But all that is forgotten is not lost. The bill must be paid. 

-Virtue Police: The idea that there's some pure virtuous cause unblemished by human vanity and selfishness is bullshit. Every cause is tainted with 'me' because I bring me along to every action. There is a honeymoon period where you can attract idealists and get them to do a few good deeds. But every movement that lasts for the long haul has self-interests. The question is how do we take your self-interests, my self-interests, their self-interests...put it in a pot and melt it down to some thing that can be achieved.

Horrors, Hoax, and Hubris

-NYC recorded no covid deaths yesterday. It took 4 months of a hard lockdown, wearing mask, socially distancing, and NYCers freezing in place for weeks at a time.

- the sacrifice meant millions of lost jobs, entire sections of town shuttering, nightlife is non-existent. The loss has been staggering with 1/4 unable to pay rent, people moving out of the city, rent prices plummeting.

- I am happy for NYC...but I also know the rest of the country could be experiencing this right now. The precious economy that ppl care so much about would be in a robust recovery right now. It could've been a win-win for everyone and a point of pride and national unity: we actually beat covid just like China did. Just like Japan, South Korea, Canada, all of Western Europe and so many nations.

If Florida and Texas started a hard lockdown RIGHT NOW, it may be able to get to zero deaths and below 1% transmission by mid-November...when we'll be in the middle of the second wave.

_ i've know ppl who died from covid. But it could've been worse. I know friends who have gotten sick...but it could've been worse. And it can get worse. In a second of relaxation or underestimation.

- social arrogance is a virus. American exceptionalism is a virus. Maybe this is the year we reduce the spread of that too.  In the face of a global pandemic we are a laughingstock. We are an out-of-control hospital ICU echoing with the dying words 'I guess it's not a hoax.' We are a morgue filled with body bags that some are still trying to separate into race, class, party affiliation. Even here, some people are trying to separate the dead black bodies that didn't matter at the start of this pandemic from the tragic white bodies falling down now...the ones who protested because they couldn't get a haircut in May or grab a beer in June, are now being fitted for a coffin in July.

-We are living in the cemetery of our follies and hubris. Maybe we will find humility between the gravestones of this year. Humility is the grace note. Humility is the place where spirit can enter. And this country needs a new spirit. We killed the old ones.

Sexual Bonding and Masculinity

random morning thoughts....been in so many spiritual circles where a guy (always unprompted and always white) will pop off with something sexually strange...like sending a group text of their privates or sending video of a naked woman with a raunchy joke attached. This has happened several times. I'm not traumatized or enraged by it, but I'm left wondering what I'm supposed to do? There is nothing that triggers or forewarns these incidents. I'll just look down at my phone and go 'oh...ok.' Then there's this pause where I try to figure out how to respond. I feel like...

-the sharing of something explicit is a male bonding. It's probably been done for thousands of years. I bet the first caveman artist showed their drawing of the herd to his appreciative tribe and then whispered to his friend 'but I drew some other stuff at the back of the cave that you should see...don't bring your wife.'

- there is something extremely basic and primitive about  bonding over images...bodies, cars, houses. Giving guys the benefit of the doubt, it's like your elementary school friends sharing nudie pics with you or guys at a bar -gay or straight- checking out the crowd. I don't want to automatically shame someone seeking to make a connection.

- I leave my sexuality out of the equation right now. These guys don't know I'm gay. And I 'present as straight.' So they are offering this to a presumed straight, masculine black guy. But I'm not straight. And so the 'share' doesn't hit me in the way they expect. It is more like a pet cat bringing you a dead animal as a gift. You realize that they think they are honoring you...even as you the owner are disturbed by the gift. And if you reject the gift or yell at the cat, they may end up never opening up again. So you both try to accept the gift while trying not to encouraging Whiskers to do it again.

- at the same time, I wondered if this bonding is subtly trains men into being low-level creeps. We present one way but then...back at the clubhouse or the locker room or the man cave...the creep returns two-fold after being suppressed in polite company.

- also is it training men into being acceptable creeps among each other and possibly unacceptable creeps with women. I have been in incidents where women colleagues have professed discomfort with a guy. Nothing overt...just an unease. Their spidey senses tingle. And usually when the woman leaves the room -and it's just men- her intuitions are proved correct. I went to  a play with a woman friend and afterward, I spotted an actor I know and admire. This actor is extremely good at playing creepy stalker guys on screen and stage...almost too good. I greeted him, we chatted, I turned to introduce my friend to the actor...she looked at him for a second, grabbed her phone, and then pretended to text while turning away from me. Later on, I asked my friend 'what was that about' and she said 'ehhh, the guy seemed weird and like a creep so I just went into my phone.' Later on, the actor was not invited back for a tv show. No accusations...but it was conveyed that the women actors on set didn't feel comfortable with him.

-a few yrs ago, I shared about the black boys on the subway who were loudly watching porn on a phone. Passengers pretended not to notice the loud moaning sounds emanating out of a boy's phone while other kids leered and bragged...'that's my bitch...that's the way I do it...yeah.' At the next station all the boys got out...except for the one. When the boy no longer had his friends, he turned off his phone, picked up a book, and started reading. It was immediate shift. Without an audience of peers, the loud pornography was suddenly inappropriate on a subway. He didn't even switch over to playing a video game...he put away the phone entirely, as if to dissociate himself from the thing. And he picked up the most virtue-signaling object in his arsenal...a hardcover book. I continued staring at him as his head was planted firmly in the book and I couldn't decide whether he was intently reading...or hiding his face behind the mask of a book.

-at the same time, I wonder how come it tends to be older white guy sharing? Maybe it's the privilege, maybe it's wanting to feel camaraderie with younger generation or a browner generation. Maybe there is a part of me that wonders if there's a racial element to these shares b/c it's always a white guy sharing with me. It's as if the blk guy would appreciate this or the white person can share this with the blk guy b/c there is a primitiveness in his heart that will find joy in just a naked white woman. In the quintessential non-fiction book "Black Like Me" a white writer disguised himself as a black man and traveled around the south in the 1970s. Yes, he saw racism and police brutality...but then he also made note of how many white guys confided in him and tried to bond with him/the blk guy about sex. The author said it always happened at night. If he was hitchhiking during the day as a blk person, no white driver would pick him up. But at night...he would get offers from multiple white male drivers. And he said the conversation always turned sexual at night. The white driver would ask him about his exploits as a black man, if he slept with white women, if he has a bigger penis, etc. The white writer realized that the greater the societal stigma, the greater fascination/fixation white Southerners had about black sexuality. They were aroused, horrified, intrigued, can't look away, need to possess, need to castrate and tame, need to project their own desires into black bodies, and then tame again, castrate again. The cycle of arousal, horror, punishment, control, castration, re-arousal repeats itself again and again. It is the dark echo chamber of American psyche.

- I don't know why I am thinking about this now. Maybe because the door bell rang at 6:57 AM on a Saturday morning and it was an Amazon delivery. Maybe because the delivery guy was black and we bonded with a simple, early morning head nod. Maybe it was reading the Michaela Coel article about sexual trauma and abuse.

Inoculation Theory in 2020 Election

The Art of Argument and Persuasion was one of the freakiest classes at Northwestern. Actual relevant info students could take out of the classroom that day and use in cafeteria to win an argument. We learned ELM, or elaboration likelihood model: how ppl make choices. We would do group tests with Inoculation theory, aka how to weaken an opponent’s strongest point by vaccinating public opinion...giving a sample of their infected argument to subconsciously build immunity in the listener. For instance, a teen goes to their parent with a story about Westboro Baptist Church and their horrendous homophobia. They get their parent to agree that Westboro ppl are monsters and then the teen waits a week and comes out of the closet. They have intensified their parents good impulses by vaccinating them against their potential homophobia by using the most toxic example and getting the parent to feel disgust. 

In 2008, Obama repeatedly touted McCain’s heroism (his strongest selling point) before linking it to McCain’s unwavering support of Bush. His opponent’s patriotism was connected to Bush and the Iraq War, inoculating independent voters against the GOP’s flag-waving veteran campaign. This year I think the biggest shift has been white independence acknowledging racism and supporting #blacklivesmatter. The reason is simple: Trump is the most toxic model of their latent beliefs. By having the prez act in the most blatant ways in supporting Nazis and the Confederate flag, he has unknowingly vaccinated many passive suburban racists against their own deeply held beliefs. Their unspoken bias can’t exist in silence like in the past. The best thing Dems can do in 2020 is to continue instigating Trump to turn white suburbanites against their own racism. 

The other thing we learned was the Oprah Book Club Effect: how ppl make low-stakes decisions based on peripheral processing: appearance, style, and tone over substance. Ppl didn’t read Oprah’s book selections because Americans developed a sudden love of novels. They bought books because they liked Oprah. And reading books made them feel closer to her. 

Biden is a peripheral processing candidate. His platform is that he's not vulgar. Conversely, in 2016 Trump’s vulgarity was seen as a plus because the media vaccinated Clinton’s professionalism by linking it to her being phony and lying...so vulgarity was the higher quality over competence. Any time Clinton did anything sane it was labeled as phony and lying...which fits perfectly with the public's general mistrust of women seeking power as being Lady Macbeth monsters. She was undone by her best quality.

Pitch Mode: TV General Meetings

Pitch Mode! 

A writer friend asked me for advice on what to expect in a tv general meeting. I figured this might be helpful so I'm sharing what my agents and mentors told me...

A general meeting (with an exec) is a soft pitch about yourself. You are in their system, they are tracking your progress, and it's 100% noncommittal. They are usually tracking many more writers than they could ever hire. A staffing meeting is usually with a showrunner who has read your work, liked it, and is trying to get a sense of you as a person. Either way, both are pitches about yourself.

A general meeting is a flowchart posing as a conversation. Your goal is NOT make it feel like a flowchart. You can do this by inserting quips, talking about their office, sprinkling in anecdotes. Usually I try to break up each section of an interview by asking them a question or making a small joke. Yes, jokes are risky but some times they pay off. The general meeting flowchart is like a professional band being given sheet music to a jazz standard. Your bandmate is the other executive and you're going to partner up on playing "Take Five" or "A Love Supreme." No one goes to a jam session to perform an exact rendition of the sheet music (which is also just a different form of a flow chart.) You don't play all the notes exactly as is...you play through and around them so that the song is recognizable. Ideally the standard song becomes your own and you start listening to your bandmate through the music. And that is the most poetic shit anyone has ever said about a tv general meeting. Anyway...

Most of the time the flowchart is quite simple: we go from you, to your personal themes, to the work and the personal themes of the exec and/or company, to where the two of you might meet (their projects or your's), and then what are you continuing on with in your life (after the meeting) that relates to who you are and the themes you discussed. That's the flow. The meetings may start off a bit different, someone might throw in a question you didn't expect, but usually they're all heading in the same direction. Along the way, there may be a detour with 'so what are you watching' or 'what work inspires you' but it's all headed in the same direction of your characters and themes in your writing. 90% of the time there is an egg-timer that will go off in their heads at about the 50 minute mark. Imagine that 'wrap it up' Oscars music starts playing. This isn't the time to open up a new thread or to dive into 'did I ever tell you about Aunt Titi and her floating warts?' No! You're almost home free. Don't blow it in the wrap it up section. Summarize, pull the threads together, leave them with a final joke or anecdote that ties things together or simply thank them and remind them of your common themes. Wrap that shit up. Get your parking validated (if it's in person) or ask them what they're doing the rest of the day. GTFOH.

I've had maybe 4 or 5 meetings that did NOT go in this direction and usually my agent told me ahead of time 'just talk about yourself, don't try to pitch' which is a signal that they have nothing for me, or that the exec is just tired of general meetings and wants to be treated like a human being. From that I had amazing conversations about life, sports, religion, politics, environmentalism at some networks and production companies. In one instance, I had a general where we talked about religion for 2 hours before Good Friday, the exec thanked me, asked if I needed my parking validated, and then on the way out said 'oh, and by the way we loved your script.' And that was the only thing mentioned about business. These were just deep somewhat real conversations which is like a tonic to an execs going from one flowchart general meeting to another.

Only two times did my agent tell me 'they want to know what you really REALLY think of their project. Like be totally honest. You don't have to sugarcoat it.' This is a sign that the exec fucking HATES the project with their entire soul, the soul of their immigrant ancestors, the soul of their Tesla, and the collective 'fuck you' energy of all the La Croix's that exists in LA (yes, even the nasty coconut flavored ones). This is a sign the exec wants douse said project with gasoline and make a burnt sacrificial offering to the Gods of Development. They want to dance in the dark moonlight surrounded by fine young cannibals -the band or actual cannibals- covered in the blood of all the execs who made them take on this project. If an exec hands you something and they want your 'really really honest opinion' and you've been prepped to be honest and give 'em that dirty, raw, nasty-ass truth...you can be a smidge honest. In both cases of me giving 'em that totally raw, dirty, not sugarcoated morsel of honesty, the exec stopped me in the middle of my statement to blurt out 'I fucking hate this project' with the intensity of a thousand suns...or some variation of that. Don't pile on to their hatred. Let them speak, give them a moment on the therapy couch, acknowledge it, maybe say something constructive on how it could be fixed or restructured, ask them where it went off track, crack a joke to let some sunlight into the dark lair of their hatred. In both cases the projects were cancelled after our meetings.

If you're meeting about a show that exist you should have in mind some favorite moments, fav characters, things that challenged/surprised you, things you would like to see, personal anecdote that might be useful for a story. The same is true if you've been handed a pilot script or treatment of what they're working on....you should have some favorite moments, what you loved, what you would like to see.

So practice, study the flowchart, learn to make it your own like a great jazz musician or improv comedian doing a standard bit.

PS:  Don't talk shit about other writers or execs. Even if you feel like you're being prompted or encouraged to do it. It's a trap. It. Is. A. Trap. The exec might not even realize they're setting a trap. You might have slipped into being their accidental therapist. Roll with it. Even if they start talking shit about someone, laugh and swerve conversation back to what you love about the exec and the conversation. Gossip is the most memorable form of communication. When an exec or showrunner looks back at their notes, you don't want the most memorable part about you to be talking shit about other people. 

Midnight Musings: What's in a Name?

It's almost 1AM. I'm reading a Murakami short story about stealing people's names and how you can shift someone's soul by appropriating their title. I've always wondered about the alchemy of names b/c the idea of name-stealing is so culturally universal. A name is a spell. It's a series of sounds that's attached to a visual image that's attached to an emotion. And the combination of sound/image/emotion puts a spell over a room. In certain secret societies, when you are initiated you are given a secret name. it's a way of having a special spell over yourself. When I did a Native American sweat lodge in Albuquerque I was given a name. I was told to keep it, don't pass it around, it's written on your heart and can cast a spell. You don't want to give people that power. Later on, I took Buddhist vows and I was also given a secret name...a name only known to me and the giver. I will go to my grave with this name b/c it's my spell that has certain images and emotions attached to it that are woven into my mind when I say it in the mirror or think about it.

If you think names don't conjure and incant, try naming your next child 'Adolf' and see how that child is treated in life. See what kind of energy Little Adolf attracts and how it can determine his behavior and outlook. Or name a little boy 'Sue.' Or be called the n-word...or try to take back the n-word by having people denigrated by it, re-fashion it as a sound that exclusively connects some. 

I've been called the 'n' word by white and black people for different reasons. Depending upon the tone and intention of the user, it shifts the spell from endearing to outrageous to murderous to joking. Same name... different spell. The last time I was called the n' word by a white-identifying person was also in Albuquerque. I've shared this story before but I keep returning to it because I found it so fascinating. I revisit this again and again, learning more each time. 

It was 2007. I was walking back from University of New Mexico library and passing by a college bar. Two white guys came out and started following me. I saw them as I crossed the street. They had a gleam in their eye...alcohol? Mischief? Malice? I didn't want to find out. Before I turned away from them to continue on my path, I could see that they had their hands in their pockets. I also didn't want to find out about what was in their pockets. 

One guy asked if I had a lighter...perhaps to get me to stop or slow down. I said 'sorry, I don't' and continued walking. They continued to follow me. As long as they didn't have a gun, I thought I could handle whatever happened. But I was practicing my ABC's of street confrontation: avoid, barricade, confront (as a last resort). I was definitely on the 'A' part as I picked up my pace. The other guy spat the words at me... 'stupid n' word.' I guess I was supposed to stop, turn and face them, erupt into rage. But it felt like a trap...plus that wasn't my name. I was aware that they thought it was my name and that they could conjure me into a mood, but my mom had given me a name, Native American chief had given me a name, Buddhist had given me a name. And these guys did not know any of my names. They were trying to use the historic name to get me to react in a way they wanted me to do. I just said my real names under my breath and it seemed to open up more distance between us...like a spell of flight. 

They continued to walk with me down the street...eyes gleaming, waiting. I moved on to B: barricade or put something between me and them. I switched the aim of my walk home when I saw a bright day-glow laundromat. I headed toward that light and they seemed confused. I casually strolled through the parking lot and they stopped. There were now other people. They stood on the border between the lot and the street, and then they turned back. I casually passed through the laundromat, made sure I wasn't being followed, and continued home. The second I got to my residence, I put my bags down and went to the meditation cushion. I got quiet and searched inside...my names were still there. 

There's no neat summation to this story. That's why it's a musing. But thinking about the power of names. Maybe we should all have our own secret names we keep and only share with the person we marry or our most trusted allies. Maybe we would have more control than the historic names. Maybe if it was just one of those guys instead of two, I would have stopped. Maybe if they didn't have their hands in their pocket, I would have called them a name. Maybe my mind was already subtly shifted by the names I had been given by my mom, a chief, and a nun...and I had control of my heart. 

Get What You Want: July 2020

1. WOODWARD INTERNATIONAL PLAY COMPETITION
Deadline: July 1st
Website: https://cola.unh.edu/theatre-dance/opportunities/cultural-stages

The University of New Hampshire is now accepting submissions for the Woodward International Playwriting Prize. The Woodward Prize is part of Cultural Stages: The Woodward International Drama and Dance Initiative and is given once every four years. The aim of this program is to broaden and deepen the understanding of international cultures through a competition for plays addressing relevant themes. Plays submitted for this competition should have a primary focus on cultures from countries other than the US. The winning play will be given a fully produced production as part of the University of New Hampshire's 2021-22 Department of Theatre and Dance main stage season. The winning Playwright will receive a cash prize of $5,000, plus expenses to travel to the University of New Hampshire and stay for the one week of performances. Finalists will be posted on the University of New Hampshire Department of Theatre and Dance website in October 2020. The winning play will be announced by February 1, 2021. A first and second runner up will also be named at that time. Pending funding, readings of the first and second runner up will be presented with travel and expenses provided to the playwrights to attend the readings.


2. HAROLD CLURMAN PLAYWRIGHT-IN-RESIDENCE
Deadline: July 3rd
Website: http://stellaadler.com/cultural-center/playwrights-division/play-submission/

The Stella Adler Studio of Acting is seeking submissions from Black playwrights for the Harold Clurman Playwright-in-Residence program. This is a collaborative residency that is mutually beneficial to the mission of the studio and the playwright. Please note: this search focuses on professional or aspiring professional writers who work with the studio’s professional acting company (not students). We are seeking playwrights who:

– are in their early careers

– are unpublished

– have not yet had professional productions other than those using the Equity showcase code

– have a vested interest in working with the studio’s community of artists

– are interested in engaging in a discussion about how the studio can support and challenge their work

This is a merit-based residency search. We are particularly interested in diversity – diverse writers, voices, viewpoints, perspectives.

Completed applications must include a required online application form AND a full-length, polished but unpublished play (a full-length play is one that constitutes a full evening of theater; a 90-minute one act play is acceptable).

Please note that applicants who advance to the final round of consideration may be asked for a second work sample.

Applicants will be considered for the playwright-in-residence position as well as:

– participation in the First Breath New Play Reading Series

– potential collaboration in student actor-training workshops/productions


3. STELLA ADLER: ENSEMBLE PLAYS
Deadline: July 3rd
Website: http://stellaadler.com/cultural-center/playwrights-division/play-submission/

Seeking new, full-length ensemble plays with casts that have a majority of female characters or gender neutral characters. Plays must be new, unproduced works and require minimal set, props, costumes. One or more play may be selected for a student production. Please note: this is the only search that corresponds with the studio’s full-time actor-training programs.


4. CLUBBED THUMB BIENNIAL COMMISSION
Deadline: July 5th (new deadline)
Website: https://www.clubbedthumb.org/


We know that many peoples’ attentions are understandably focused on other goals right now, and so are delaying the submission deadline for our Biennial Commission until July 5th.

We are eager to award the commissions and get money in artists’ pockets as soon as possible, so we don’t want to delay any further than that, since the panel process can be time-consuming. If anyone finds that they would like to participate but cannot in this timeframe, please let us know and we will figure out what is possible.



Every other year Clubbed Thumb invites playwrights to propose plays inspired by a particular prompt. The application is open to all, and read blind. The winning proposal(s) receive (or split) a $15,000 award and two years of development support. (CLICK HERE to read commission prompts from past years.)

For this year’s commission consider The Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio – but don’t write about the Plague. Consider The Decameron as a piece that came from the ashes of the Plague but is decidedly a piece of the Renaissance. Consider it as a celebration of voice and style, as a compendium of stories from a wide span of sources. Consider it as an opportunity to take a deep research dive, if that’s your thing.

Then do with that what you want, jump off it in form, content, what have you. Feel free to take inspiration from just a little piece.

Your play should have no fewer than three people, and up to ten, and most of them should be female.

Very few of these characters should be blood relatives.

You may only specify three props.

You may have no stage directions longer than twelve words. You may only have seven stage directions.

Time: (of all scenes) night — except for one which can be dawn or dusk.

One very fancy costume.

An insect.

These constraints apply to the whole play.

At some point in the process, look over the Clubbed Thumb submissions guidelines, as well as our production history. We don’t have a lot of restrictions, but we hold to them.

As we are telling you about this at the very beginning of spring, we’ll close the portal on the first day of summer.

Please submit the following through the application below:
(this is a BLIND submission, see notes below)

– Completed form below
– A one-page letter of intent telling us about your proposed project
– 10 exploratory pages from the proposed project (either contiguous or from different sections of the proposed play – your choice)
– A completed play you’ve written in the past (see note below)
– A resume

IMPORTANT NOTES

No names please, on the letter, the 10 page sample or the complete play. The panel reads all submissions BLIND — the only place your name should appear is on the info form and on your resume.

The letter of intent should briefly map out the proposed piece and, if need be, orient the reader to the excerpt’s relationship to the whole. You needn’t explain or repeat anything that your 10 page sample makes clear. Then give us an idea of where the piece is coming from and where you think you want to go with it.

We request a completed play in case our readers need a greater sense of your voice. Please recommend 10 pages to look at for reference, and note any context you wish to give.

One last thing: this is a commission for Clubbed Thumb. So look around our website at our submission guidelines and production history for reference, if they are not familiar to you.


5. RAZE THE SPACE THEATRE ENSEMBLE: MONOLOGUE FESTIVAL
Deadline: July 10th
Website: https://www.razethespace.com/

Los Angeles based RAZE THE SPACE THEATRE ENSEMBLE’s ten-minute international plays festival will go ahead in 2020. It will NOT be a play festival or reading on Zoom, but feature a series of monologues performed by different actors, filmed in physical theatre spaces, and broadcast at a later date.

RAZE is currently operating within an extremely limited budget, cannot offer remuneration or guarantee your work will be performed.

PANDEMIC is the 2020 festival theme. Put it at the heart of the monologue you submit. Comedy or Drama, we want monologues that excite, surprise, challenge, and move us. Monologue submissions that do not meet the following criteria will not be considered:
Submission deadline is 11.59 p.m. PST, Friday, July 10, 2020
All entrants must be over 18 years old.
Monologues must be no longer than 10 minutes, no shorter than 5 minutes.

ONE SUBMISSION per writer only.

The monologue must be original work in English, written specifically for the stage by the person making the submission.

· Monologues must not have been previously produced, performed, or published. We want new, original work only. However, if your monologue has previously received a staged reading, that's fine.
Monologue submissions must be in Word or PDF and sent as an email attachment to razethespacetheatre@gmail.com. Include the words ‘Pandemic monologue’ in the subject line of your email and a brief hello in the body of the email.
We will announce a shortlist of plays within two weeks of the submission deadline and invite shortlisted writers to an in-house online workshop featuring the work where we’ll read, discuss, and give feedback on the work. The writer is not obliged to attend the session and it will not affect our decision in the final selection of material, it’s simply part of our rehearsal process.


6. INGENIO 2020
Deadline: July 8th
Website: https://milagro.org/

NGENIO 2020 will take place September 20 – 26, 2020 and we will be accepting script submissions through July 8th. Plays will be selected, assigned directors and actors, rehearsed, and presented as virtual readings.

 Through INGENIO, we seek to create a space where Latino/a/x playwrights of all races can develop their plays in a safe, supportive environment with mentors and artists to whom they can relate. INGENIO serves as an intrinsic step in the creation of new full-length theatrical works. Rehearsals and workshops culminate in readings and feedback sessions with audiences of theatre professionals and members of the public.

Due to the ongoing uncertainty regarding the pandemic, INGENIO 2020 will move to the digital realm, with rehearsals, workshops, and readings shifting online. INGENIO 2020 will offer the opportunity for collaboration beyond geographical limitations, as Milagro will be producing this year’s festival in association with Teatros Unidos, an emerging and growing collective of Latinx theatre organizations. In addition to Milagro, readings will be presented by Teatro Luna West and TuYo Theatre with more commitments forthcoming.

GENERAL GUIDELINES
-Open to all Latino/a/x-identified playwrights
-Original full-length plays, at least 70 minutes and no more than two hours in length
-Plays can be in English, Spanish, or bilingual
-Plays with over eight actors will require doubling; playwrights are asked to provide preferred casting breakdown
-Chamber musicals will be considered
-Published plays and those that have received, or are scheduled to receive, a full professional production are not eligible
-Playwrights are strongly encouraged to participate and attend.

TO SUBMIT
-Scripts must be in PDF format and should follow the Dramatist Guild’s of America Traditional or Modern play format. Other than the cover page, the script shall have no identifying information about the playwright.
-Include playwright’s biography (90 words), play synopsis (150 words), and play’s development history, if applicable.
-Submit via email to ingenio@milagro.org no later than 5pm (PST)/ 7pm (CST)/ 8pm (EST) July 8, 2020. Selected playwrights will be notified by September 7, 2020.
-For questions, email project manager, Maya Malan-Gonzalez maya@milagro.org


7.LANESBORO ARTIST RESIDENCY
Deadline: July 31st
Website: https://lanesboroarts.org/artist-residency-program/residency-program-guidelines/

The Lanesboro Artist Residency Program offers two or four week residencies to emerging artists driven to explore ways in which their work can be applied to the community and how Lanesboro’s rural community can inform their work.

The Lanesboro Artist Residency Program, located in Lanesboro, MN (pop. 754), is supported by the Jerome Foundation and aims to provide an immersive, meaningful experience for emerging artists from Minnesota and the five boroughs of New York City. The program is unique in that it provides an entire rural community and its myriad assets as a catalytic vehicle for engagement and artistic experimentation, with staff working with each resident to create a fully-customized residency experience.

Lanesboro Arts’ goal is to be flexible and accommodating to artists, allowing them access to local resources needed for conceptualizing and realizing their place-based work. Lanesboro Arts recognizes “place-based work” as work that is specifically inspired by and designed for the place in which the work takes place; it can be a new project, or an interpretation of the artist’s current work tailored to engage the community of Lanesboro. The residency program was designed to align with and amplify Lanesboro Arts’ vision for communities–especially rural communities–to embrace artists as economic drivers, culture bearers, community builders, and problem solvers.

Artists must be legal residents of Minnesota or one of the five boroughs of New York City to be eligible to apply. To be considered, eligible artists must submit their application through the online webform on Lanesboro Arts website. Complete program details are below. Please contact Kara Maloney at 507-467-2446 or kara@lanesboroarts.org with any questions.


8. PHILLY ARTIST COLLECTIVE
Deadline: August 1st
Website: https://www.philartistscollective.org/new-venture-reading-series-festival.html

To celebrate PAC’s 10th anniversary season and to celebrate the vitality of classical themes in new work, PAC invites playwrights to submit for consideration for our first ever New Venture Reading Series Play Festival.

​The theme for the plays is Transformation.

Five plays of no more than 10 minutes each will be selected for a staged reading during our festival taking place February 14-15, 2021 at the Louis Bluver Theatre at the Drake.

​The Festival takes place February 14-15, 2021.

All submissions must be received by 5pm on August 1, 2020. No exceptions. Only the first 100 submissions will be accepted. Once the 100 cap has been reached, the submission window will close. Submissions that do not meet the guidelines below will not be accepted to make room for others. One submission per writer, please. Make sure everyone can have a chance.

The selected plays will be announced November 1, 2020.

HOW?
For inspiration, take a walk through our website. Read through our mission, our past production and reading history and even take a look at the adaptations and scripts we have worked on over the years. You can find a selection of our scripts and adaptations here.

Please be mindful that while the scripts are largely in the public domain, our adaptations are not so please don't use these works for any other purpose without permission.

Create a 10-minute play that responds, resonates or retorts the themes, characters and/or essence of the work you discover. Use Transformation as your guide. It may lead to a new verse form or a new language altogether or it may be a direct rebuttal of the themes you encounter. We are looking for creativity and honesty.


9. NYLON FUSION THEATRE COMPANY
Deadline: August 8th
Website: https://www.nylonfusion.org/submissions

The Worst of Times -- Due May 12th, 2020 -- due to covid--19 we are extending to August 8th, 2019

The Future - Due August 1st, 2020 extended to November 1, 2020.

RETROSPECT: The Worst of Times

We have some epic fails in our past. Explore one of them. Was this a failure to all or just some? Could it have been prevented?   Should it have been prevented?  Take any angle you want, even speculating what it would mean if things were different.
​
PROSPECT: The Future

Every era has a “future” style. A future outlook based on the present. What does “future” look like now? What does it sound like? What does it feel like? We look at The Jetsons or Back To The Future and say “where is my flying car?” What do we expect now that we know that flying cars aren’t (yet?) a thing? Speculate. Have fun!


To be considered This Round's On Us please submit/email the following: A cover letter, brief synopsis, resume and full script to nylonsubmissions@gmail.com Please be specific as to which project you are submitting to. Write on the SUBJECT LINE For example: This Round’s On Us: The Worst Of Times, Jane Jones.

NOTE: accepted plays are produced (including casting) by Nylon Fusion Theatre Company. Playwrights are encouraged to attend rehearsals.

The Political Play series (Full Length about 90 min)

Deadlines for “Political Play Series”
NOTE: We appreciate your interest. But due to the amount of submissions we have been receiving we will not be accepting FULL LENGTH and/or TV - STYLE scripts at this time. Until further notice. Thank you!

The TV-style project (Episodic sitcom sample script- 20-30 pages) for **The New Situation Company. We are interested in writers residing in New York, as the team will be meeting frequently during script development. If you do not live in the New York area but would like us to consider your work, feel free to send in your sample script, as we would like to feature guest writers in the project as well.


10. NATIVE VOICES: FESTIVAL AND RETREAT
Deadline: August 10th
Website: https://theautry.org/events/signature-programs/native-voices-annual-call-for-scripts

Native Voices is currently accepting submissions of full-length plays (60+ pages) by Native American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, and First Nations playwrights addressing all themes and topics.

2021 Playwrights Retreat and 27th Festival of New Plays

The Retreat and Festival bring artists to Los Angeles to work on 3–5 plays through a rigorous directorial and dramaturgical commitment for 8–10 days in May/June. The retreat culminates in public staged readings of the plays at the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles. Selected playwrights receive artistic support as well as an honorarium; out-of-town artists receive roundtrip airfare plus lodging in Southern California.

Selection Process: Full-length plays (60+ pages) received by August 10, 2020 will be read and evaluated. A select number of playwrights will be invited to submit formal proposals detailing their developmental goals should their play be chosen for the short list. Scripts will then be sent to a committee of nationally recognized theatre artists for further evaluation. With their help, Native Voices selects up to five plays for the Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays. Playwrights will be notified in January 2021.

2021 OPEN Submission for Production Consideration

We accept scripts all year long. Do you have a full-length script that has been developed and produced that you’d like us to consider for a future Native Voices production in Los Angeles? Please follow the Checklist for All Submissions below and in the Native Voices Script Submission form check the box for 2021 General Submission for Production Consideration.
A Note About the Native Voices Distance Dramaturgy Process

Months prior to residencies at the Playwrights Retreat and Festival of New Plays, selected playwrights participate in dramaturgical conversations with an assigned director and dramaturg. Workshops with these creative teams and a cast of professional actors commence once the playwright arrives on-site. It is important to note that these conversations and workshops are playwright driven, allowing the writer to shape their own developmental path. Selected playwrights should be prepared to dedicate adequate time to this process prior to arriving on-site.

Checklist for All Submissions
Please label script attachment as follows: PlayTitle_Author’s Last Name, First Initial (Example: MyNewPlay_Doe, J.doc).
All submissions must conform to a standard play-script format (one-inch margins, #12 Times or Courier font, all pages numbered).
Include a title page with full contact information (mailing address, phone numbers, e-mail address) and a draft or revision date.
Include a character breakdown at the beginning of your script.
Provide a biography of 75–100 words. Please label attachment as follows: Bio_Author’s Last Name, First Initial (Example: Bio_Doe, J.doc).
Provide a press ready photo of at least 300dpi. Please label attachment as follows: Photo_Author’s Last Name, First Initial (Example: Photo_Doe, J.doc).
Provide development history for the play. Label attachment as follows: DevHistory_PlayTitle_Author’s Last Name, First Initial (Example: DevHistory_MyNewPlay_Doe, J.doc).
To submit, fill out our online form and upload your submission materials here: Native Voices Script Submission Form

Please do not send treatments or outlines. Previously submitted plays should only be resubmitted if the play has undergone significant dramatic changes. Previously produced plays should be submitted under the 2021 General Submission for Production Consideration. Plays that are not selected are kept on file for consideration for future opportunities. Playwrights are encouraged to make multiple submissions (up to three per event), but selection will be limited to only one play per playwright, per event.


11. YALE DRAMA SERIES PLAYWRITING COMPETITION
Deadline: August 15th
Website: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/yale-drama-series-submissions

The Yale Drama Series is seeking submissions for its 2021 playwriting competition. The winning play will be selected by the series' current judge, Paula Vogel. The winner of this annual competition will be awarded the David Charles Horn Prize of $10,000, publication of their manuscript by Yale University Press, and a staged reading at Lincoln Center’s Claire Tow Theater.

The prize and publication are contingent on the playwright's agreeing to the terms of the publishing agreement.

There is no entry fee. Please follow these guidelines in preparing your manuscript:
This contest is restricted to plays written in the English language. Worldwide submissions are accepted.

Submissions must be original, unpublished full-length plays, with a minimum of 65 pages. Plays with less than 65 pages will not be considered. Translations, musicals, and children's plays are not accepted.

The Yale Drama Series is intended to support emerging playwrights. Playwrights may win the competition only once.

Playwrights may submit only one manuscript per year. Only manuscripts authored by one playwright are eligible.

Plays that have been professionally produced or published are not eligible. Plays that have had a workshop, reading, or non-professional production or that have been published as an actor’s edition will be considered.

Plays may not be under option, commissioned, or scheduled for professional production or publication at the time of submission.

Plays must be typed/word-processed and page-numbered.
The Yale Drama Series reserves the right to reject any manuscript for any reason.
The Yale Drama Series reserves the right of the judge to not choose a winner for any given year of the competition and reserves the right to determine the ineligibility of a winner, in keeping with the spirit of the competition, and based upon the accomplishments of the author.
Electronic Submissions

The Yale Drama Series Competition strongly urges electronic submission. By electronically submitting your script, you will receive immediate confirmation of your successful submission and the ability to check the status of your entry.

Electronic submissions for the 2021 competition must be submitted no earlier than June 1, 2020 and no later than August 15, 2020. The submission window closes at midnight EST.

If you are submitting your play electronically, please omit your name and contact information from your manuscript. The manuscript must begin with a title page that shows the play's title, a 2-3 sentence keynote description of the play, a list of characters, and a list of acts and scenes. Please enter the title of your play, your name and contact information (including address, phone number, and email address), and a brief biography where indicated in the electronic submission form.

If you would like to submit an electronic copy of your manuscript please go to: https://yup.submittable.com/submit.


12. CROSSROADS DIVERSE VOICE PLAYWRITING INITIATIVE
Deadline: August 15th
Website: https://finearts.illinoisstate.edu/crossroads-project/

The 2021 Diverse Voices Playwriting Initiative welcomes submissions for full-length, unproduced plays by playwrights of color in accordance with the mission statement of the Crossroads Project (see below). A diverse panel of judges comprising of faculty, staff, and students will select one playwright as the winner of the contest.

The winning playwright will receive:

An invitation to Illinois State University in Bloomington-Normal, IL for a one-week new play development workshop, culminating in a public staged reading. The playwright may also be invited to offer guest lectures and colloquia. The Crossroads Project will cover costs for travel, housing, and meals during the workshop.
An honorarium of $500 for the workshop.
To be eligible to win the contest, a playwright must be available for a one-week workshop in late March 2021 (exact dates TBD). Due to funding limitations, the Crossroads Project can only cover costs for travel within the United States.

The deadline for submissions is August 15, 2020, 11:59 p.m. (central daylight time). There is no entry fee. We only accept electronic submissions in PDF format. Because our staff and resources are limited, we can only consider the first 100 submissions.

Please include in your submission:

A sample from your play up to 15 pages. This does not have to be the first 15 pages of the play.
A playwright’s statement (max. 250 words) describing your inspiration for writing the play, as well as how you believe a workshop in a university setting will further your development process.
A synopsis of the play (max. 250 words).
A character list with short descriptions for each character (age, ethnicity, gender, occupation, family relationships, etc.)
Please follow these guidelines when submitting your play:

A playwright may only submit one play per contest. The writer of the play must submit their own work.
Plays that have been previously fully produced or published are ineligible for the contest. Plays that have previously had workshops or staged readings are eligible.
Submissions must be the original work of the playwright, which may include adaptations of fictional or factual material. Translations of other playwrights’ work are not accepted.
The submitting playwright must either be the owner and controller of the copyright or provide written proof that they have acquired the legal right to use copyrighted material in their work.
Submissions must be full-length plays.
Musicals are not accepted. However, plays with limited music requirements are accepted.
The primary language of the play must be English.
There are no other restrictions in subject matter or style.
The Crossroads Project reserves the right to accept or reject any submitted play for any reason.
To submit your play, use the play submission form . Please try the link first to check if the contest is still open.

We will contact semi-finalists by the end of October 2020 and ask them to submit the full play.

The winning playwright will be notified by mid-January 2021.


13. IVORYTON WOMEN PLAYWRIGHTS FESTIVAL
Deadline: August 30th
Website: https://www.ivorytonplayhouse.org/

The Ivoryton Playhouse is delighted to announce our Fifth Annual Ivoryton Women Playwrights Festival. We are seeking submissions of one-act plays by women playwrights.

The IWPF provides the 4 writers whose work is chosen paid travel to Ivoryton and housing while here, 3 days of intensive workshops with a director and actors for play development and participation in a staged reading festival in February/March 2021 (actual date to be determined). There is also a $500 stipend.

Ten minute plays are acceptable, and all plays must run no more than one hour.

We will be accepting completed manuscripts by email only until August 30th.

Interested playwrights should email a completed manuscript, (for musicals include a script and CD), with name and contact info.

The Ivoryton Women Playwrights Festival also seeks resumes from directors (CT residents only), and those interested in being readers, both men and women.

Play submissions, and resumes from directors and readers should be emailed to
Jacqui Hubbard, Artistic Director  jhubbard@ivorytonplayhouse.org


14. ALMOST ADULT PRODUCTIONS
Deadline: open-ended
Website: http://www.theatresantafe.org/auditions

Almost Adults Productions is looking for 10-15 minute LGBTQ+ themed plays for an ongoing reading series to be presented on Zoom starting this summer. Writers do not have to be LGBTQ+ identified, but their material should be thematically relevant to the queer community. There is no requirement for premiere status. Writers will be asked to participate in the production of their reading but Almost Adults can help out wherever needed. At least one rehearsal will be required prior to each reading.

There is no deadline for submissions as they will be accepted on a rolling basis.

Send plays as Word or PDF documents to Aaron Leventman at writingcoachsf@gmail.com. Questions may be sent to this address as well. Writers may send up to three plays and will be notified within one month of submission. 

We are also looking for actors and directors for this series. Please send an email if interested in participating.

Kindness, Compassion and Love...in a Crisis

a self-reminder in morning meditation...

-there are literally millions of people risking their lives, working over time, refocusing all their energy to fight coronavirus. Millions of doctors, nurses, orderlies, EMT workers are going into work underfunded, undersupplied, under-appreciated and knowing that they could die...and they do it every day. For total strangers.

-there are thousands of teams of doctors and researchers racing against the clock to find a vaccine. This is possibly one of the largest int'l projects in human history. They are spending time away from spouses and kids, shortening their lifespan, working to the point of exhaustion. And they are doing this for total strangers.

-the vast majority of ppl in the world know the importance of wearing masks. They understand that it plays a part in protecting other people. Even the majority of Americans know this and are trying and making efforts.

- millions of people around the world have been galvanized by #BLM and it all started with a handful of black women, black queers, black activists who created #BlackLivesMatter out of an idea. They were called terrorists, sent death threats, and probably have the FBI tracking their every step. They have probably lost work and made enemies over simply stating that black lives should matter. This didn't start with a politician. It started with black bodies. Community organizers, activists. And they did this for others. And it has spread around the world...from a conversation at a restaurant and small chats.

-America might not make it. But America is not the world. The vast majority of humanity is fighting and taking steps. The rest of the world appears to be smarter, more scientific, and -right now-  displaying more empathy and savvy. And that is just the way it is. But America is not the world and our sense American exceptionalism needs to die. Now. We need to stop thinking that there is some shield protecting us from viruses and global warming and war. And it usually takes a catastrophe to destroy a harmful myth.

-Even within America, the vast majority do not side with the know-nothings and conspiracist. Even in the most plagued nation, 70% are still fighting. It may not be enough, but the majority should be acknowledged.

the overwhelming power of the majority is easy to ignore. I focus so much of the so-called anti-vaxxers, the conspiracy theorists, the people driven my tribalism and ignorance. It's easy for me to focus on this fire and ignore the oceans of people fighting this.

-it is so easy for me to ignore the overwhelming power of the majority. I focus so much of the so-called anti-vaxxers, the conspiracy theorists, the people driven my tribalism and ignorance. It's easy for me to focus on this fire and ignore the oceans of people helping others.

-and to you who are wearing masks, taking precautions, listening to science, acting rationally...you are the majority. You are the overwhelming majority that cares about others. Thank you.