Playwrights are noted for their unique voices on the page, but singing? Well, that’s another matter entirely. So when artistic director Jon Lawrence Rivera asked a few of those of us who had been produced at Playwrights Arena in LA to sing a song on Zoom, the response was….uh….gulp….uh….really, are you sure…..uh…..???? But Jon is very persuasive. And then there’s peer pressure. Plus Howard Ho promised he would make us all sound good. (Well, fine, maybe he promised he would make us sound “ok”–which is not quite the same as good, but it was good enough.) So here we are: Trying our damnedest to sing a Karen Carpenter song. (Which is quite fitting. Karen Carpenter was So-Cal born and bred. A native of Long Beach, just a trek down the 110 from LA.) And what do you know? Some of the playwrights can actually sing! The rest of us are there with our heartfelt wishes that we all be together again, live, in person, in a theatre, soon.
Click to hear LA Playwrights sing “Close To You” (slightly revised)….
