I just finished writing my sixth play. Yay! But I was troubled by a previous wish.
I have been wanting to write a full length play since the beginning. Unfortunately, my plays only seem to want to be one act plays. 50 minutes or less. It's not a bad length for a Fringe show, but if you want to get your work looked at by a big theatre, they want a full length play.
My current play, Cast Away, tried to fulfill my wish. When I didn't want it to. I had submitted a proposal for The Pearl Company Canadian Theatre Festival and it got accepted. Uh-oh. How long was my play? Uh... 50 minutes? Like most of my other plays...
Well, when I started writing it, the play didn't want to be 50 minutes. It wanted to be twice as long as that! But I had already confirmed that it WAS 50 minutes!! D-oh!
I finished the first draft and then I had to cut. Mercilessly. I cut and cut and it was still longer than 50 minutes. I cut my darlings. I slashed anything that could be taken out without being missed. When I couldn't look at it any more, I sent it to my friend and he suggested more cuts. And it refuses to shrink. :-(
It's a one man show, so I'm rehearsing it now and whittling a sentence here or a line there. But I keep thinking to myself. Next time I'll write it first before submitting the idea. Or be careful for what I wish for...
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