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Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Writer's Center Scales Back Books
Sad time for books at the Writer’s Center of Bethesda, Maryland. They are scaling back their bookstore. No longer a place for small press books, the Center will carry books only by their teachers and current readers. They are keeping the magazines up for sale—at least that is what they say.
The Steiny Road Poet wearing her Word Works hat went to the Center to pick up the books they found (one heavy box, one light box) and to pick through the shelves and bins of books for those that were missed (another full and light set of boxes). After all the blood, sweat, tears over 35 years, The Word Works books were easy to spot, even if it was just the spine on view. Kudos to the Center for keeping these books in such good shape. The Poet only rejected one dog-eared book. The good news is she found many Word Works books that are currently out-of-print.
The Poet also snagged books by other presses that were written by some of our deceased authors such as Robert Sargent and Hilary Tham. And books published in the Mica Press chapbook series that Word Works had a hand in their judging process.
Then there were books from authors all over the United States, like M.L. Liebler (MI) and Ruth Moon Kempher (FL). So many beautiful books. End of an era.
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Playing Outside the Box
Recently I got comments from
Baltimore Playwrights Festival judges on my play Who Killed Jackie Bass. The work is a ten-minute play that is
outside the box—the main character Jackie Bass is killed multiple times as the
story of her murder unfolds from various perspectives. The play trades on
poetry, juxtaposition, metaphor and repetition. There are four characters and
two of these characters are dead. The overall tone of the piece is optimistic
and uplifting.
Getting
comments from four judges is an amazing and eye-opening occurrence that was
well worth the $10 spent to enter this contest. While my play was not selected
for a reading, what I learned is that experimental work, because it does not
fit the formula for playwriting, has to try harder to find appreciative
audience.
Of
the four judges, #2 said:
Hello Author,
This is an ambitious piece, and I think it deserves a
staged-reading. It is well-written and thoughtfully composed. In particular, I
found the reoccurring deaths amusing. It is also not a typical play, so I must
confess that I did not fully grasp all the angles of it yet. I’m hoping a
reading will illuminate those things that are purposefully ambiguous and those
things that still need improvement.
By the way, I marked many of my responses as
“somewhat” simply because this is a piece that does not fit the standard
question model.
All the best with your continued development.
All the judges rated
the plays using the following set of questions. Here are the answers provided by Judge
#2
Is the dialogue
appropriate?
|
Somewhat
|
Is the dialogue
under/over written?
|
No
|
Do you find the
characters interesting?
|
Yes
|
Are the characters
motivations clear?
|
Somewhat
|
Are the characters well
developed?
|
Somewhat
|
Is the plot well
developed?
|
Somewhat
|
Is the plot logical or
appropriate?
|
Somewhat
|
Does the plot consistently
move forward?
|
Somewhat
|
Is the ending
appropriate?
|
Somewhat
|
Does the play hold your
interest?
|
Yes
|
How
did the other three judges answer the questions?
Is the dialogue
appropriate?
|
2/No & 1/Yes
|
Is the dialogue
under/over written?
|
1/No, 1/under, 1/over
|
Do you find the
characters interesting?
|
3/Somewhat
|
Are the characters
motivations clear?
|
3/No
|
Are the characters well
developed?
|
2/No, 1/Somewhat
|
Is the plot well
developed?
|
2/No, 1/Somewhat
|
Is the plot logical or
appropriate?
|
2/No, 1/Yes
|
Does the plot
consistently move forward?
|
2/No, 1/Yes
|
Is the ending
appropriate?
|
1/No, 2/Somewhat
|
Does the play hold your
interest?
|
3/No
|
The judge who answered most
of the questions no (except for
saying the dialogue was overwritten and the characters were somewhat
interesting) provided a rather interesting comment that might be how rewrite
might work best: “The playwright has a lively imagination, and these 10 pages
might work as the opening of a longer work, but in my opinion they do not work
as a 10-minute play.”
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