Congratulations to the following participants from the 24 Hour Playwriting Competition run by the Fringe of Toronto Theatre Festival:

1. The Tempest and the Birch Tree by Jonathan Kline
2. That’s Just Gas Escaping by Jerry Schaefer
3. Outside Heaven by Simon Paluck

As you can see by the above results, my name was not included, but that’s okay.  As I said in the previous blog, the experience of writing this play under such extreme circumstances was well worth it.  And the bottom line is, a writer writes.  That’s what we do.  Period. 

The top script by Jonathan Kline is having a live reading on Sunday July 11 and I will be attending.  I’m curious to know how the winning script incorporated the four concepts.   I also like to hear another writer’s voice.  I write and re-write and re-read so much of my own writing that I often live in this bubble.  In fact most writers live in bubbles.   Writing is an isolating act with the loneliness being combated by the characters created.  Their lives fill yours and catharsis happens when the characters…the plot…take on a life of their own.

That is what it was like for me when I wrote Not With a Bang But a Whimper – the title of the play I wrote for the 24-Hour Playwriting Competition.   The play has much potential outside this play competition and I look forward to revisiting the writing and possibly mounting the play one day.

My next project is to write one of my seasonal productions for Christmas which will be staged December 11 and 12.  Many ideas are brewing and I look forward to seeing where this next script takes me.