Day 266: D Day

I can't believe it.  Day 266.  The original projected due date for my play.  And I did it.  I wrote a play.  And not only that, it's good.

This project may well be the furthest I have ever stretched myself.  I never wrote creatively before a year and a half ago -- I was always a good writer of letters, reports, commentary, that sort of thing, but I had never sat down to attempt to tell a story.  To make up a story, at that.  To create an entire universe out of thin air - a family, a history - is something I really didn't know I was capable of doing.  While I had successfully written a dozen or so short plays before attempting this full-length, telling a flash of a story in 10 minutes is very different from creating an arc over 2 hours. 104 pages!  I've never written anything close to that long, not even my Master's thesis.

When I began this project on January 15, 2010, I may have fantasized that I would be where I am right now, but I certainly didn't expect it.  To have completed 2 drafts, to have a play so strong that I have secured a director who is bringing in top notch talent in for the reading and inviting all of his industry contacts.  To have already pitched my play to a number of producers, and to have several of them interested in reading it and/or attending the reading.  To have raised over $3,500 from my community of friends, family, blog followers, theater lovers, and even some strangers in order to put on this reading at a caliber worthy of those producers' attention.  I think I figured I would put on a reading with actors I knew, for my friends and family to come see what I had done, and hope against hope that one or two of the producers I'm fortunate enough to know might attend.  But this?  This is so much more. 

There are no promises, no guarantees. Schedules change, people might not come, and even if they do they might not be interested in my play for any number of reasons.  So I'm not holding my breath yet.  But it feels wonderful to be so excited, to be so hopeful.  I think not having the expectation is allowing me to enjoy this feeling all the more, because I am not clinging so desperately to the outcome.  Oh, if only I could have had this balance in my opera career, I would have enjoyed the process so much more.  But then I might not have quit, and I wouldn't have written this play. 

This play, this baby of mine I love so dearly.  My characters are so real to me.  I know them so well, and yet they still surprise me every now and then, just like real people.  I can't wait for you all to meet them.

Happy almost-birthday, little play!  Thank you for coming into my life so that I can share you with the rest of the world.