Accidentally forgetting your hopes and dreams
Oh, hi friends!
I sort of forgot about my hopes and dreams over the last few weeks.
My big plan in 2020 was to scale back on freelance editing and writing and focus on writing musicals, plays, a TV pilot, a screenplay and maybe another journal or book. I told myself, for the first time in eight years, “Your only job is to keep creating.” I was submitting to writers’ groups and fellowships, holding readings, getting into a groove. And there was much on the horizon: We were on a roll with creating songs for our Marvelous Mrs. Maisel musical in the BMI workshop, and my 10-minute musical “Letters From May” was accepted into a festival where my friends and I were going to put on a production in April.
And then it all stopped. All those plans were replaced by…well, you know.
Workshop put on hold. Festival canceled. Writing assignments dissolved.
Oh well, I thought. I began to busy myself as quickly as possible by pitching editors, looking for jobs, and grasping at unknowns.
Why?
Well, I know why! Stability is nice. Working with kind editors is nice. Feeling useful and like you have something to contribute is the nicest of all.
Yet I’m beginning to ask myself…
Why not keep up that big plan now?
Yes, there are distractions. Yes, it’s hard to focus. No, I don’t have all the answers.
I doubt I’m going to write 10 pages a day or stick to the same timelines as before, and I’m probably not going to write my own King Lear (although I am self-isolating with a Shakespearean scholar, so who knows what could happen!).
This isn’t about increasing productivity, but rather about renewing my commitment.
In the absence of all rules and in the midst of radical change, there lies the possibility to dig even deeper. To carve out your tunnel. To keep up what you know to be true. To not stop creating — not now, not never.
And when the lights turn back on, we’ll be there.
Who’s with me?
“Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It’s time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that by speaking from the heart about the things that matter most to us. If a play isn’t worth dying for, maybe it isn’t worth writing.”
Thank you, Terrence McNally, for your fire.
Your Life-Affirming Link of the Day
Here’s Sutton Foster singing and tapping “Anything Goes.” This completely changed my mood yesterday!!
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Thanks, as always, for reading.
Love, Kara