Back in March, my screenplay Home won the Wildsound Screenplay Competition in Toronto. It was competing with 200 other scripts from North America and after winning, received a public reading. Following the reading, audience and moderator (Zaib Shaikh from Little Mosque on the Prairie) discussed my script. I sat and listened to all the comments and it was intense, but a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I want to hear it all, whether they loved or hated the script. You have to be open to people’s criticism and know that opinion is just that – you don’t necessarily have to agree with it, but it’s important to listen.

This brings me back to Jane and Blue. To be able to walk through this experience of putting Blue on stage is really a lesson in creative trust. If you are lucky enough to find a collaborator who shares a similar vision as you do and is not afraid to push you to greater depths, then consider yourself blessed. It is always exciting (and a relief) to connect with people who connect with your work. This happened after the Wildsound reading of Home when a film director came up to me and expressed his gratitude towards the script. This same director sent me a beautiful email that went into further details about Home and how his interpretations of theme and character were some of the very things I was going after. He was connecting with the work in the same way I was when I wrote it. Moments like these you want to bottle and take out next time you’re feeling discouragement about the craft of writing.

If you would like to see excerpts from the reading of Home and comments from Zaib and audience members, please go.