 Right only in control issues. Thank you. I think, and this is so important for me to say to like, the writers in the room with me is, I think I had a play done, two plays done, eight years ago, and I know Susie very well. And, you know, Summer Shorts is a fantastic reputation. Which is why I was willing and I did do it. But, ordinarily, if I hadn't heard Susie Westfall and I hadn't purchased pins before, and you didn't have this reputation that you have, I probably would not have put my play in the deck out. So, I just want the writers to know, and kind of especially if you're drumming skill members, and you'll be drumming skills, is that you always do have the right to be present. And, if there's a reason you can't be present, then you have every right not to let go. But, you know, if you just want your work out there, of course we all want our work out there, and I think, you know, you should, like everyone here this year, go to the festival and see, oh my gosh, you know, the production guys last night, like the acting, the everything, the technical ones, the spectacular and the stellaring. But, if you don't know that, either from word of mouth, or from seeing the show yourself, you know, it's really an un-recommended thing. But, you guys do have, you know, Susie and I have known each other for like 10 years, Yes, we put up, we did Cherries Play, which meant that we had to find, or get from Actors Theatre in Louisville, we were actually the second production of her play, The Bayhawk, which features a 12-foot Volsbury Doe Boy, and we got it. So we had a lot of trust, too, that we could actually bring something that big to life, literally to life on the stage. So, yeah, there's a lot of interesting relationships up here right now. And I'd like to add in on that if I could, just because my play had a lot of technical elements, and I wrote it a few years ago, and I always said, well, no one will ever do this play, because, as you saw, it has all these big things that have to be done with it. And of course, now you always, when I write things, they're always like, oh, well, you know, keep it simple. You know, you're always trying to think, oh, how can I keep it simple and everything. So, it was so exciting for me when John's like, we can do this. We can make this happen. I had no idea how I want to talk to you about it. You're a good actor. We got this cover, things, we can do wings. Don't worry about it. And, you know, when Susie first called, she was like, we're going to do it. And that was so exciting to me to have a theater that said it's huge, and it has a lot to it, and don't worry, we can do it. And that was very exciting to me, because I didn't think it was going to be whatever they'd done. I was like, okay, that's good. I would say for me, I was just really disappointed. No, good. Was she acting right? Yeah, yeah, I just didn't find the comedy at all. But, you know, I guess I was in a different situation, because the play has been done, it's been published, and so there are, you know, once you get published, there are many productions that happen that you don't have control over, and you just get like a Google alert, and then you like review, you know. I was like, wow, what is that moment they're talking about? I don't remember writing that at all. But I'm very, I am very controlling because I write very specific sort of comic beats, and it was really a great lesson for me in like how, you know, actors and a director, it was great not to be part of it, and to see like all that you guys found, you know. I mean it was really wonderful, and I don't know, I just feel like I'm going to be a different writer, just not a different writer, but different in the room, a little more open to collaboration, and it really felt like a collaboration, even though I hadn't been present at all, you know. It was like, you know, because I'm an actor, and then I started writing, they're sort of like, there's a lot of stuff in my plays that I sometimes actors won't get, you know, and I'm like, this is a great offer, and you're not picking up on it, you know. And to like have these actors pick up on it and go even further, which is really exciting. I had the unusual circumstance of having my play being done here at the same time that the same play was being done in New York at the EST Festival, and I directed the production in New York, and I directed it because I really wanted to see if I could make it exactly the way I heard it, and because I was working on it in New York, I really was not, I felt relieved to not, and I was a little nervous when I came here, and I thought, gee, what do I want from this? And I also feel that my play can easily tip into something that it can make you laugh and it needs to make you laugh, and if you get too concerned about the mother dying in the other room, it can become a morbid, sort of less good experience. But I was delighted to see it, and you did it so differently than I did, and I just felt it was lovely to see it, and I did feel just like that, that I learned from it too, and that I could be a little different in the room also. Although I have to say that I still struggle with how it is to be a playwright in the room with the director. I do have those issues. I'm not quite sure what I'm invited to say, what I'm not invited to say, if my anxiety reads too much, if I get too impatient, and I've been asked to leave the room, so I have those issues. I want to hear that story. I want to hear a story. What'd you do? I guess I've had a lot of experiences where I had gone someplace that was doing one of my 10-minute plays, and usually had some sort of conversations with the director beforehand, but because of the budget of the theater and my own, like, need to have a job, like I couldn't go there to sit in on rehearsals, and I've had experiences that it's like, oh, wonderful, or I like, in one instance, you know, made a mistake of reading a review beforehand. That was just awful. They just painted my play, and I was flying out to Colorado to see it. I'm like, what are they doing in my play? And I go in, and it was lovely. It was wonderful. I totally enjoyed it. It's completely what I would have done had I been directing it myself. But I think there's always an anxiety. And sometimes I just have to realize, like, oh, you know, that joke just didn't land for that audience, for some reason. If I saw it tomorrow night, it would land, or maybe I need to rethink it in my own brain, or so all those things are constantly going on. But, yeah, anxiety is a big part of it. Well, sure. Do you think you guys were anxious? Yes. Sure. Yeah, why don't you talk about that? Well, it's your anxiety. It's like, I'm actually very, very confident in my art, good or bad. I feel like I put out what I believe is good and what I've done the best that I can do with. And if it works, it works. If it doesn't, some things just don't work. But this was an interesting experience because in some cases, I was able to communicate with some of you on things that this process is very fast for us. We put these shows up in two weeks of rehearsal. So what winds up happening, unfortunately, I would love to have been on the phone all the time and work through this. But we're putting 11 plays together in two weeks, and they get about an hour and a half a day, basically. And so what tends to happen for me is I tend to go have more communication in places where there's something I think needs to be discussed, or we can't figure out how to make work. And generally, if you don't hear from me, it's because I don't... Not that I don't need to speak with you. I don't love to. It's just that it's working. You know, I feel like it's working. So it's an interesting experience because having all of you come, I deeply respect your work. I spent a year with Susie looking at these plays, and Susie's the first one to defend some of these plays. She funnels them through into a pile, a very large pile, and then I start looking at them. Oh, no, you don't start looking at them until the large pile becomes smaller. Yeah, sure. And smaller. And smaller. I have a triage pile. No, it's true. I mean, being perfectly honest, I'd love to say I read every single page, I read the first... I begin to read the plays that Susie tells me to read until I decide that, yes, this is a play I want to produce, or no, for whatever reason, I can't produce this play. I have another one just like it, or it's whatever reason it doesn't speak to me, or that kind of thing, and then I stop reading it. That's the truth. But for me, I love all of these plays, and I pick them for specific reasons and in ways to make the program work. So I deeply respect your work and very much care that you feel respected in the work and that what you saw was a good representation of what you've put on the page. So I hope that is the case, and it's not the case. I'll be happy to talk to you about it in a minute. Question? Because I haven't seen it yet. So here's my funny anecdote that some of you have heard, which is that I only had one conversation with Margaret who directed my play, and she was so excited, and I was like, oh, this is really cool. Because I wrote the play and I gave it to you, and then I never heard from you, so I was like, I hope you liked it. And then they were like, no, no, everything's fine. So much like what you said, when you don't hear back, it means things are okay. And she said, you know, I just got to tell you, I'm getting this weird sort of, a little bit of a film noir vibe from it, and I'd like to kind of explore that. And I was like, that sounds really cool. That's great. And I was like, I don't really want to go period with it or anything, but if you feel a little influenced, and she was like, great, thank you so much. I'm so excited. And then we didn't talk again. And then the reviews came out, and it's constantly referred to as the film noir play. And you guys have seen it, I haven't seen it yet. So I'm really excited to see it. Because I mean, I've long since passed sort of like, it's not like I'm going to go in there and be like, what is my plot? You know what I mean? Like, I'm excited to see what it is. And I feel like your attitude slowly changes from like, the more that you have productions, the more that your attitude changes towards what are they going to do with it, instead of, oh God, what are they going to do with it? Like, so you start to become like, I'm excited to see what these people think. And the other thing that I just wanted to say that I think has been great, especially since a couple of people reference reviews up here, is that I've read all the reviews. And what's, because I'm fascinated by shorts. So I've read all the reviews, and what's great is that like, they're so wildly diverse. Like they're all positive about the overall experience of the evening, which I think is really cool. But some people are like, this one's the best. And some people are like, this one's the best. Some people are like, this one's the worst. And then someone else is like, nope, that's the best one. But it's amazing. I haven't read any of them. This is making me boring. And I do care about reviews. It's not about not caring about reviews. It's about understanding that when you are approaching an evening of short theater like this, some things are going to be to some people's palate. Some things are going to be to others. But you always want to be the best. You always want to be the one that everyone loves the most. Okay. No matter how successful you are, maybe you're just way more successful. No, no, no. I'm not like the least. You're my guru. Lawrence, I'm in here. That's Zen-like. I can tell you I have quite a temper. I don't like when people are like, well, I made it this play because... But it was just fun to read the reviews because there's one that rated all of them on a snork meter. It was so... No but it's amazing. I think it's super fun. I'm sorry if... There's something about evening shorts that does make it a little competitive. Not even for us, but like when we were sitting in the audience, there were these two women behind us. After each one, they're going, that was the best. No, no, no, that was the best. I didn't get that one at all. I mean, it was just like constantly rating him as it was going on, fun to be afraid of listening to. Is that actually what happens is you just don't believe when you have a way to live. You know, it doesn't really change your life much. You just feel relieved. And there's kind of a tension inside that you don't get the picture or you're below the fall wall or whatever it is. It kind of stays with you. You feel misunderstood in some way. I just tell my students, reviews are like, if they're negative, they're going to be ignored if they're positive, they're going to be useful on purpose. Yeah. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. Well, it's also educational that everyone doesn't, like that's why it's important. You don't just read like one word, like if I had just read like the Herald review, then I would think my play was an abomination and that, you know, half the plays were terrible and the other half were godlike and that that was the deal. But I read all of them because everybody has different opinions and you have to worry about it because it's in your markets. And like, you know, you use those reviews or maybe you don't. I love that you started off by saying like, I do my work and I put it out there and if I feel good about it, because I was like, can I have a good brother do it? But like, I just, I'm not worried. I'm not worried. I don't know why. I'm sorry. There's a level. There's a level. There's a level. Oh, please. That's hardly anything. Reviews. Reviews. Oh, no. It's just a handful of reviews. I'm sure it's like that. Oh, I thought you were worried. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. It shouldn't be uncomfortable. It shouldn't be uncomfortable. It shouldn't be uncomfortable. I think you mentioned though something that's really important. Something I felt important to the development of me as a theater artist that you kind of get to this place where, okay, not just like, is it exactly what was in my brain? But sort of finding like, oh, this is the way they did it. It's like, oh, do I agree with that choice or not? And I think many of us are, you know, theater artists beyond just writers, whether it's actors or as directors, or we've done those different things at one point. And I know where I've taken somebody else's work and I have a vision for it. And of course, you want to stay true to the writer's word. But the actors are artists also. The directors and the team designers are also artists. So it's sort of respecting that, even if you don't always agree with every single choice. And I think that's part of the fun of it and part of the joy of like, oh, that's what they did. That was really kind of interesting. I don't know if I would have done it, but I like that I saw it done. Well, the other side of all of this is we've almost sometimes the easiest parts to pick in the plays. But then, but it's that damn force, dump box and chocolates kind of a thing. You know, what is it amongst these plays? What if it comes down to 25 or 30 plays? What is it this year that we want to go for? And truthfully, when we started Summer Shorts in the summer of 1996, nobody was producing in the summer at all. And for us, for city theater, that became this amazing opportunity to say to the more traditional theaters, which surrounded us, who had regular seasons of October to April or May. Oh, gosh, now everybody's available for the summer. The actors are available, the directors are available, the designers are available. They're scattered across four counties. And we were going to base ourselves at the University of Miami because that was the best venue available to us that was interesting. It's the Ring Theater, which is the Jerry Herman Ring Theater at the University of Miami. And it was a 300-seat flexible theater. And it's on a university campus, which meant it was non-union. And it was affordable on that level because we had decided to go union right off the bat because if we were going to do 18 plays, which is what we chose the first year. And Gail Garrison will tell you there was not a caster on a piece of furniture anywhere. I mean, this was stuff coming and going. The idea of it really... we learned from those mistakes profoundly. But we also learned that nobody was seeing anything like this. I mean, even I was a little skeptical of the genre back then, the John Jory genre that he invented to keep the doors of Louisville, you know, the place coming. And then it was like our community sort of ate it up. And so this is a lot of fun. This is exactly the anti-season kind of thing we want to do for the people who were still in Miami for the summer and hadn't escaped to the Hamptons or North Carolina or Colorado or whatever. And over the course of 18 years, it's been so interesting to watch the community change. Our community has become so sophisticated around what this is. That is how our festival really goes. It is not so much what the marketing of it is as it becomes the word of now. And when we used to do summer shorts at the Rain Theater with 18 plays on a Saturday and a Sunday, we might feed 200 people in between, which was dinner theater. And all of the point of that was to bring those people in, turn around tables and eat kind of mediocre food to have that social conversation about what they had just seen. And we never have done summer shorts consciously, thematically. We've never said, oh, this is the monster night or this is the this night or this is the that night. Although there was the one year that I really had a lot of other work to do and I didn't have a play on the festival and I was called in to take a look at it in tech. Probably 24 hours before we were really going to get in there. And I watched program A and I watched program B and Gail Harrison said, so what did you think? And I said, do you realize what you've done? And she said, no, what have you, what have we done? And I said, well, I have to take responsibility too because, you know, I picked these plays and what we've got is the fucking death festival. They're either fucking in A or they're dying in B. She said she did not. There's no really, let's look at it for a minute. And I think we had 12 plays that year and I said, fucking, fucking death. Fucking, fucking, fucking death. Dead, dead, dead. Fucking death. So really eating this year. This year. The climactic plan was out. That was about death. And it was a 10 minute play with 10 short plays about death in 10 minutes. And there was a lot of fucking death. But even this year, for you guys who saw it last night, you know what, there's like little things that you start to see which I want to say that John is so brilliant to have found that there are 10 best-won plays in our festival that come upon the line. So what do you want? And those, that's a critical thing right there. And then we had, in one play I said to him on the read-through, do you realize we have two plays about wings? How are we going to do two plays with wings? How are you going to do that? That's your problem, goodbye. So that's the thing. If you guys saw, as you were watching it last night, and if some of you want to go and see your play again, let us know. But you start to see these patterns that I don't even know that we knew we were, that we were seeing. But there's a lot of relationships, you know, a lot of relationships. And then John has this talk, made me an idea of, you know, let's put it in a gallery. And it was beautiful. It should be my policies. Was this the first year in that venue? No, not even a venue, seven years. Is there a seventh year? I had a question about the gallery concept, because I thought it worked really beautifully, and I think that's something for a short play festival you need to have that some kind of concept for the transitions in an overarching name. Quickly, my strength as a director early on, I founded a company with a good friend of mine, named Antonio Amadeo, who directed a couple pieces for us. And our strength was creating worlds in this little tiny black box theater. And that was the thing visually. We were all about how pieces moved and how you create a world that the audience gets to live in. And we always hated the idea of trying to transition anything in black or anything. It seemed like nonsense stuff. We were like, let the audience watch a show. Let them watch the whole piece. So I tried to figure out a way to tie all these together. And my thought was that the senior designer came. I said, I don't want a theater. I said, I don't want a proceeding march. I don't want a theater. I don't want an installation, a festival, an event, something. And the senior designer, Jody Delmintero, brought this modeling of, she said I want to change the color of the whole room. I want to hang white curtain everywhere, and I want to turn that into an art museum. And right from there, Antonio and I sat down and went, done. That's what we're doing. So now let's figure out how to put it through the whole show. And that's kind of the way we work. So that's kind of how we built it. And that's what the idea of the art pieces, the prints on the wall for each one of your pieces. Some of them are tucked around a corner, some of them are everywhere else, but there's one. And then the sound design followed suit immediately afterward. That came the last week. And it just sort of worked out that way. Does anyone have any questions? I'd love to open this up. Yes. When you are designing, how long does it take you to pick the order in which place you go? And what goes into the order? You'll notice that the program is printed incorrectly and that there's an insert in the program for the correct running order. And that's because we have to turn the running order, we have to turn the program into the center, the Portland Arts Center, like a month ahead of time. And I decided last year that I wasn't going to be beholden to a running order that didn't work because I had to figure it out before we got into rehearsal. So I put the running order together Tuesday of the week before. That's what we did. We took a week in rehearsal and we did a minor run. And then I threw out three running orders and put the new one in. And that's kind of the way it works. And that's happened for two years. There's a gentleman over here named Mark Swannar who, Mark has written three pieces for us in the last two years. Not this year, but the last two. And worked alongside of me directing and putting the show together last year. And Mark has a big background with Second City. And so last year, basically, I sat down with Mark and said, what would be the formula for how pieces go together and how things follow. And basically, given Mark credit, he taught me how to do it. So if it worked, thank you, Mark. And if it didn't, thank you, Mark. But that's it. That's how we did it. Other questions? Authors, anything, yes? First of all, I just want to say that you're not helping me. I thought, I didn't say, well, I'm going to do a Mr. Real Art Gallery. And then he was like, wow. Thank you for any of the playwrights and maybe Susie, but how many times did you submit? And was there a question of developing a relationship with City Shorts? Or was anyone chosen, like, on a first submission basis to have a production? Do you do that ever? Does it take time before you choose somebody? No, it's sort of a real combo platter of stuff. We have a contest which, of course, brings in a lot of where our submissions are. And that's a nice sort of added thing that we did two years ago. But the truth of it is that we have plays, like we've been sitting on the student for three years. We have. We have been sitting on the student for three years. We've been sitting on the student for three years. We've been sitting on the student for three years sort of waiting for the cast that might be best for that play. Other things come in, for example, Sherry's play and Holly's play were two scripts last year that we had, we chose for finalists in our inaugural City Theatre National Award Short Play Writing Contest. It's really wrong. But what that contest now allows us to do, all of you, who are finalists and who are going to be reading tonight and tomorrow is to give, it gives John and me sort of a little cushion for the planning for next year to say, oh, well, you know, these are really plays we might want to be able to do. So the other thing is Leslie's play, for example, sort of came in. I don't think, I think you see, I think Christopher Gray and Leslie Abasi are the most produced playwrights at City Theatre in 18 years, yes, yeah, for whatever reason. So, whatever. They're just really good writers, they're a lot of fun to be around. But with Leslie, because we've done so many of Leslie's plays, they have a very specific reference to them, they have a very specific language and rhythm and they're very popular pieces with our audiences and I think we know how to do her plays. So, when an opportunity comes along, with this play, I think you went through three drafts with us and we knew that she had chosen to direct it when EST picked it up. So it was one of those things you say, you sort of take a little deep breath with and say, okay, we're going to be simultaneously producing this same play and for her, you know, throwing it up in the universe, it is going to be the play that she directed within her own vision and then really, you did, you had to trust us, coming in and seeing what we did and there were some back and forth around some elements of the entrances and exits that John wanted, was talking to Leslie about throughout. Other plays, they just appear and you just know, oh my gosh, that's a play we really want to do because where else are we going to, where else will our community see this play otherwise? That's the truth of it. Yeah, Speed's play was really interesting because we just called them and said, well, you're going to come in and you're going to do this because Nam said so and we wanted to do that anyway. But he said, well, I like to write plays and we're always, we are always looking for plays that have more than two characters. Yes, yes. Hear my words. Hear my words. I mean plays with six characters, seven characters, maybe even eight. We haven't done eight in a while but you know, we might. As it is, in the dolphin play, those two characters and you know, there's the two dolphins and there's the guy. Rick Park, he's from Boston. Well, then they decided, let's throw this other character out there. Let's put the guy sleeping, right? And it just changes visually what you're experiencing. My play, which it started as a one minute play in December for a writing program out in, John really liked and he said, well, let's could we do it maybe, could you write some more to it and maybe we put it in the first half of the show and then they come back in the second part of the show. And we're okay, let's see what happens and there's a way to do it. And then it went from the couple and the waiter to the other woman and then there was suddenly another woman. I've never actually had a more successful summer short experience as a playwright in 18 years as I have at this point. I have to say it. I have fun maybe because I stayed out of the room and out of the way. But that's sort of what happens is we come in a different, in different ways. Davis played two plays of David's and then we had one play of David's so which doesn't mean No, no, just to clarify that for a good bit more. We had chosen two plays of David's to perform and I took one of them out frankly because we weren't doing a very good job of it. I hadn't, I didn't have the cast for it and the program was running long and that's where we were. The program was running long I had to take a play out. I had made a mistake and we didn't have the right cast for it and we're struggling through it and so I made the decision which I'm sorry about David, that to take the piece out because I thought we were not going to serve it well and that was, that was literally what we did in that case. I have a place Yeah, the play is fantastic. I would love to do it. Now we know how to cast how it's supposed to be and you'll tell us. But Davis, David came to us though really again through Bruce because of Israel. Israel Harvest The person, not the country. Is it Israel? Is it Israel? It's complicated. A few off-questions. But that, I mean some of it is because Israel Harvest has had a couple of plays done with us and he sent us a play of yours and said, oh we write together and I just, I just saw this play that got done in this festival in New York for Halloween the Mothra play and you should look at it and I'm like a Mothra junkie groupie girl from my past and I was like, oh god yeah, that's a fun way to do it. So the plays we even have plays that come in very late and suddenly I'm sitting on John's, you know John's, John's John's whatever and saying, please look at this play please look at this play. Yes. But I mean part of the short answer to your questions we are unique, maybe not unique but forcing it for playwrights this woman is an incredible advocate for playwrights. Trust me her and I argue very often there are times where I say they're not your like children when you make a decision because she's an unbelievable advocate for playwrights so we are an open door policy really we look at plays that get sent to us and we read them as many as we can Susie reads probably realistically we didn't get through 900 this year we probably got through 500 though I stand correct but when Susie gives me plays honestly I don't look at the names I make a point of not looking at the names on the plays so our plays come from established connections they come from friends other friends, people we work with and over half the plays usually come from people who we have not produced before who I don't know my feeling is the audience in some cases cares who the playwrights are mostly the audience cares that the pieces are good and that they enjoy themselves so the first reading I try not to pay attention to who read it and what I mean right up here we've got we've had a published play so we went to the we went to the published material because we like it John actually called me Kendra about your play and he said this was a great play you gave me I can't believe you know and I said well play oh you actually took a stack home that I gave you and you read it yourself that's kind of fun and so the plays sort of circle with us and into the ether we have people we really like and we ask them to read for us who know the work maybe they're after with us or they've been playwrights with us or they've directed with us and so I trust them I said can you please read Ornan, God can you please read 25 plays and then tell us what you think and so there's a filter that's constantly going on that we find the stuff that we that we like and in some cases really it is golly you know this plays a little bit similar to what that one is for this year and the casting is going to be like this so let's hold on this one and see so Are there any other questions? Please be more questions, yes Was that the entire company that we saw last night or were there so there's no elderly women there were not this year not this year, but there could be certainly were there any plays in the finalists that go into a different age range we've had cast that are all across the spectrum the plays that I was interested in doing this year that's how they felt so I have to balance what I can cast in a certain size company I don't know if Steve had brought this up but he brought it up earlier that his play was set in a film which was written that way I was just curious what made you go that direction did you bounce it off of him was it the space did you see something that he obviously wrote in there that I didn't to be honest with you that was the director of the piece named Margaret Ledford I gave that piece to Margaret she has a very good eye she's one of our top directors down here and Margaret read it and that's what she saw and I said to her please talk to Steve and see if he sees that in there I assume I hear we had a small conversation because I can't imagine any other I don't see it any other way either anymore so that's kind of a big thing I didn't well I haven't seen a film more version of it is but I just wrote it as people on the city street at 90 and I would assume that I mean I don't know I intentionally wrote like because we had a fantastic conversation when you were like okay I need something for the entire cast there's six of them here's all of their headshots here's a little information about each of the actors and I was like super thanks and he was like here's what I loved was when you talk through like we've got a play that does this we've got a play that does this and so it was fun and that's how I I mean that's how I decided to write the piece in my mind at no point was it film noir and so I believe because what I think is going to happen when I say it tonight is that they're going to talk like they're in a film noir and I feel like if that happens my head is going to just I'm going to just be like ooh not like angry just like because in my mind it's just people talking on the street like very fast and I have done nothing to it so I'm really excited to see what it is is it safe to have seen that none of you saw last five what you were originally put your actually the first time this is the first time I saw the vampire done the way I had actually envisioned the vampire in my head which was kind of really cool I was like it's the first like when I wrote it that's I pictured that sort of the smaller productions have had you know guys in microjackets or you know just very pale people so and that was actually one of the things we first talked about and I get so but I was like but I'm open whatever because I do like seeing the different interpretations anybody else weigh in on what they saw last night I liked what I saw I mean you guys type it up which I enjoy it I'm brand new at all this I've only seen it once when I directed it myself and there were elements of when I directed it myself that I really liked that I would like to see that I suggested that's cool I loved it and then there's things that you guys did that I would love to incorporate into the play and actually kind of had a question about that and then someone else directed it if you like something that you do I mean what is the rules or edit it take it take it I thought I asked first I'm saying that on ADA you take it you take it Matt was your I'm sorry Matt was a student is that how you wrote it being that kind of crazy I don't know how to deal with it I thought it was fantastic it certainly was a broader interpretation than I've seen before but I thought it was terrific once you kind of have your production of it it's just really fun to see what do they do with it I thought they mined the comic wonderfully I found so much great new business I think one of my favorite things was that his folder for his yeah that was me yeah I love that as well yeah that was great and you think well it's already published I would suggest that once it's published is that it then if you see a version you like something can you change that don't tell Amy Marsh I said this but yes you can change that they let me change the ending they let me change the last two pages of cartoon after three years of it being published because I was like oh god I know how it ends now but they had to like then eat all of the existing copies of it and read friends and it was like a whole but they did it because Sam French is awesome but don't tell him I said that that's a big change you wouldn't do that for like that and other days there's such a great world of internet publishing and they just sort of like are print on demand kind of publishers and Sam French is publish on demand so it's easier so they don't have like a warehouse of 10,000 books not the ones that they've already published on demand but now they're print on demand so it's very easy for them to just change them I had a couple of things that I wrote into the script that was important to me I am interested when people have their backs to the audience and so I wrote right into the script I imagined and I directed it in New York that the stove was upstage and that Ralph is at the stove a lot and the window is up there and in those sections Ralph and Ellen are talking out the window with their back to the audience and I wrote that into the script I also wrote that she just leans on him without touching him she just leans there and I wanted that gesture in it of an intimate but non-touching sort of thing those things were important to me and they weren't there but I did notice that you brought it all down front and you put the window on the fourth wall and I have to say it took me a minute but it was okay with me and I felt that it did open it up and so I liked that I had both versions even though I hadn't imagined that one cool you have time for one more question? anyone have? I was wondering for those of you that have had a production of a play that you were not involved in at all that say wasn't successful if you saw that and thought those sons of bitches screwed up my play or thought damn it I was not clear in the script that I gave them what I wanted I had both I have a one act that I wrote that I it's like a 15 page play with 11 short scenes and in my theater brain nobody in their right mind would put blackouts in between scenes they would just flow to me and I had productions where they did a blackout and a set change I was like dying when I saw it so I went back and I rewrote the play and I purposely wrote there are no blackouts and I made it clear within the dialogue that there are no blackouts and made it clear so that just making it proofing it so that wouldn't happen in a feature production I think acting wise for me you've done a few even reams and workshops of the play you know what the pitfalls are so having a little note at the beginning but there's style at all there's sometimes that there are times where I've seen something and been like oh clearly I need to be more clear or I never in a million years would have thought it would go to that place but one of the first short plays I ever had produced was in Los Angeles the first time I ever went to Los Angeles they flew me out because they were doing two in the evening I'm going to another city I'm not in Atlanta, yay not in Atlanta is great but to have a play done somewhere else but there's these things that you have to care for as a playwright when the opening of your scene is a motel door opening and you hear the keys outside and they come in laughing and the one guy's like I'm just saying that the key always works for me and the other guy says well you're a genius with a room key Mikey and then when you see it in production the door opens and one of them says I'm just better with a room key douche bag and the response line is don't call me a douche bag douche bag and you're like that is just a different play like that's just something so there are times when things happen and then that was the best because it was one of the first talk backs I ever did I haven't seen the play and afterwards the very first question that was asked was is that what you envisioned when you wrote the play and I lied I was like oh it was different and I really enjoyed it because I didn't know what to do I did not know what to do and I feel like when those things happen it's always like it's crazy it's crazy well they were just winging it do you know what I mean I don't know what they were doing I think whatever the intention is initially things get steamrolled steamroll is a negative term but I don't think intention but I think directors cast they read a script and you've got whatever you've written it and then in the process they stop reading those little things there's a writer you put in trying to protect certain moments or whatever and sometimes they improve things they do if they have a better idea but other times they don't so I think intentionally or not a lot those things go out the window and sometimes in rehearsal an actor improv something everybody in the room left and they kind of go oh yeah maybe we should check with the writer no one checked with the writer and now that's in or you said something about I want this person should be in a spotlight here and should do this because you need this to sell this moment and then once the designer comes in and the designer is saying well here's my lighting design and then no one is going to go back and go wait what are you saying to the script and they kind of say that and I can be like well maybe there is a moment for that they're in the creative process and then it's just kind of part of it unless you want to really be kind of like an asshole when you're scripted and be like don't ever ignore them that's what I want to do well the same thing is if something's... look the best advice you'll ever get about making sure things get included is put in the dialogue like if something is essential to your script acknowledge something in the dialogue and then I mean the story I gave is a bad example because they changed the dialogue but normally people don't change the dialogue so if you put something in there like oh my god this crack just appeared in the floor it kind of has to happen because they say it do you know what I mean do you think that companies not here of course feel that they have with shorter plays than they would a full length drama I hope not I hope not as well but what David was talking about a shorter play my sense sometimes is that people think it's sort of the springboard and they have a little bit more license to riff on it than they would a fully realized I think that's because a fully realized play though but I think each word is actually even more important in a one act because you don't have that time to jump on the board before you dive in the water you start in the water so I think that actually you need to be more precise in a one act that all the words I think are more important so when people do take license with it it's just frustrating but I think that's just kind of a challenge of doing short plays because if you're in a longer play they get kind of trapped into doing what you intended but if it's a short play if they make a wrong choice they don't see the repercussions of it because it's over separately I know from working last year one of the real challenges was as authors we write short plays and then once they have to become part of what is for the people that are sitting there one show you know you want to like you need something here and it's not in this play that you wrote you want to put it in and you can't because John won't let me and on that note thank you all