Enemies Of The Arts

There are many things that discourage artists; lack of arts funding, competition, favoritism, nepotism, social status seeking, poverty, jealousy, critics, gate keepers etc. But the most discouraging thing is prissy, self-righteous moralists who attack the…

Active Imagination

In my previous blog post on inner conflict I neglected to describe how to explore an inner conflict. For the sake of dramatic writing, an inner conflict requires you to split various sides of your…

Inner Conflict

You can’t have drama without conflict but there are various kinds of conflict. I prefer inner conflict because one of my goals is to sort myself out. If I can figure something out about what…

On Being A Serious Artist

What makes one a serious artist? This is a topic I explored in my full length play Charcoal Sketches. I would argue that you cannot aspire to become a serious artist. You are either destined…

Ten Minute Plays

I have written many ten minute plays because it is a popular format for playwriting competitions. Ten minute plays are usually given a reading, not a full production. This makes playwriting comparable to writing poetry,…

Medea

I have been reading several translations of Euripides’ play The Bacchae (or The Bacchantes) because I am fascinated by its connections with shamanism. Recently I have become interested in another one of his plays, Medea….

My Playwriting Web Site

This is the first blog post for my new playwriting web site. It was always my intention to create a web site devoted to my playwriting but first I needed to write enough plays to…