Here I am again...
Every once in a while - more often than that - the Playwright’s Guild of Canada does something wonderful. Well, they do great things all the time but every once in a while what they do touches me directly. I’m older and out of the loop and yet they manage to keep me inside the loop (box?). So a while ago I received a message that they were planning an exchange between playwrights and directors and was I interested? Yes. I filled out a kind of an application (didn’t remember doing it) and didn’t hear. Apparently, they lost my address? Anyway, last week I was notified that the Exchange would take place on July 4, was I still interested? Yes.
So I went. got lost on the way because I have a terrible sense of direction and just because I’ve been someplace before doesn’t mean I can find it again. So I was late and didn’t know we were being timed, allowed 3 minutes to pitch. When it was my turn and I I heard the ping on her phone at the 3-minute mark, I thought our moderator/facilitator was getting a phone call, and kept on going. Not too long, she assured me when I apologised afterwards. I was the only one who wrote a presentation. I had a specific agenda. I also gave them a CV of my produced plays (see the sidebar on my blog). I haven't been at it all those years without being very professional in my approach.
I was the oldest person there, which didn’t surprise me. I usually am now. There was an equal number of playwrights and directors (12 of each), but more women than men, which didn’t surprise me. It also didn’t surprise me that they were all so enthusiastic and energetic and accomplished, oh, and hopeful. They are remarkably eclectic and remarkably skilled at finding venues and audiences for their work. They all spoke well and only a few gave away their youth by using “like” for punctuation and emphasis. ("I was, like, surprised, or, The plays were, like, amazing.”) Very few of them were interested in me, not surprising, nor I with them, I must admit. (I found a couple of women.)
I’m looking for a director for a new play of mine that I can’t get placed/produced. What I need is a new agent. I’ve said before that most of my contacts, agents, producers, publishers and editors are either retired or dead. That’s what happens when you live so long.
We go on, we go on. The future looks different, as it should, but it goes on, too.