The Reading of Drama Plays

Hi, it's me, braindead. I'm workshoping a play I wrote for Naked Angels all this week. End of day one, and I am already a sad, dumb, helpless feeling puddle on the floor. I think I will have some wine, and pontificate upon reading Plays.

With all of the writing / directing / acting / doing / making we do, it's oftentimes hard to find adequate time to do something so simple and fulfilling as reading a play! That of an establishing writer or that of a new one. I definitely don't do enough of it, for time reasons, and also for narcissistic reasons. When you are pursuing something, it's too easy to block out the others who are doing the same thing - or, more importantly, those who have been doing it before you, better, and for years. There is something intrinsically selfish about what we do, sometimes: like: NO! I am the only one who does what I do! Which, to an extent, is true. Our voices are what are unique to us. But: this year, I am definitely trying to make myself read more plays. When I am struggling with a play that I'm working on - INSTEAD of banging my head against my wall, or cat, I'm going to try and think about a play that I've seen or heard about or read in school that somehow relates, structurally or thematically, and make a nest in Drama bookshop and read the crap out of it. This is my promise to thee (Bekah)! And to you. After all, I'm not really re-inventing the wheel, I am discovering my own interpretation of it.