The beautiful monoprint above by Donna Diamond is from the illustrated publication of my play Presents in the soon-to-be-released 5th issue of CARRIER PIGEON: Illustrated Fiction and Fine Art. These are the same folks who published the illustrated version of The Midas Touch, and I was thrilled that my wife Heather gave me two of the Presents monoprints for Christmas.
My post last month garnered so many generous responses from people, and I’m hoping over the coming year to explore the suggested plays and playwrights in two ways. The first will be a semi-regular series of posts about play structures, strategies and tactics to look under the hood at what works.
I will also be writing etudes – plays that have specific technical challenges that will stretch my capacity, similar to the concept of an etude in musical composition. My first up will be a two-hander that unfolds in a single location in real time, inspired by Johnna Adams’ beautiful new play Gideon’s Knot.
That will have to come after a number of other projects, including: a completed Jane the Plain for the ongoing serial production at Purple Repertory Theatre Company; a new draft of Under a Better Sky for the Hall commission; and some rewrites to Denny and Lila for MTWorks’ Newborn Festival.
I hope to make that happen by living up to my write-every-day resolution from last year. That resolution is perhaps no more likely to hold this year than last, but this morning I finished a new scene of Jane the Plain, so away we go…
Corinna Schulenburg 