Okay - so, yeah -

This is my first time doing Screnzy (as we chicagoans call it) but this is not my first time writing a play.

I want to know what's the next step? It can be daunting waiting for someone to "discover" your new works and I think that the theatre public is astute enough to not need a play to go the "traditional" route in order to make it to stage. So, at this point - I'm interested in staging my plays or at least having a staged reading.

Is anyone else ready to go to the next level? Sometimes you will never be able to edit and tighten up your script by reading it on your own - you need to see it up and running (like directors get to see with "rushes" for films). It is when actors are acting/reading and an audience is responding (while watching and via feedback after) that you literally get to see and hear why "Rhonda falling down the rabbit hole and coming back as James Brown in the Epilogue a) doesn't make sense to the actors or the audience, b) reads very clunkily or sounds funny when it should be sad or sad when it it should be funny, c) makes it impossible for the audience to suspend their disbelief (especially if that's not the intent), and/or d) needs to be tweaked for continuity or drama or comedy between act 2 and 3 where it just lulls, OR - well, you get the point.

I wrote NUMB a few years ago and I know it has some technical issues that could be tweaked, but there's only so much I can grasp on the page. I have literally read this play so much that I think my mind compensates for anything that seems out of place. I need to workshop this play now - and that's where I'm at.

Is anyone else there? And what are the steps to take? I'm ready to get this puppy up an running.

ANYBODY???

I suppose in the first instance, if your objective is to get a grasp of how/if your script works, you could try getting a group of friends together and seeing what they make of it. Only try this, however, if they are likely to a) take it reasonably seriously and b) still be your friends afterwards. Also, politeness demands that you try to remove as many problems as you can see in the script yourself before bringing anyone else into such a time-consuming form of evaluation.

Other than that, the only thing I can think of is to look up your local theatre groups and ask them what they think. If you don't have any in your area or none of them are sympathetic to the idea of giving out such feedback, maybe a creative writing group might be interested. You could try starting your own such group if worst comes to the worst.

I haven't any experience of attempting to get plays staged, so what to do if the reading proves successful is something another Screnzyer will have to answer. However, a "beta test" with carefully-selected friends or a local group would be a reasonable first step.

I was just contacted by a drama teacher yesterday who knows I participate in Script Frenzy, and he asked for my script /any script for his class to do a read through of. I have one that's basically complete from 2007, but I haven't edited it, or even read it, since I wrote it. But as I told him it's a mess, and gave him the option of dropping it like a hot potato if it's too bad, I just went ahead and forwarded it to him.

I know I'll probably regret this. Wish I'd gotten around to reading/editing. Wish I had vision and brilliance and all that. And wish I were more polite...

but what's done is done...

I think if I didn't have these pushes, I might never edit.