I love the message from Playwrights Arena: ‘L.A. Playwrights will be heard again soon.’ Of course, the question is: When? And maybe more interestingly, how? The fact of the matter is that theatre artists haven’t stopped working. Playwrights are still out there, plugging away, hitting deadlines that only barely seem to matter, now that the venues are closed and the productions and workshops are cancelled. Many of us are working the same way we always do, i.e., without pay; the pandemic has only decreased the odds of a paycheck ever coming in for a story that we loved so much we had to write it, a message we felt was so important we had to get it out there. So quarantine and lack of $$ hasn’t stopped us from doing what we do: Creating stories and bringing them to the public. But now the challenge involves even more creativity: How to get these stories to the public? Zoom theatre? Webisodes? Podcasts? Radio? Imaginary productions? I’m grieving the loss of jobs, of being able to see friends, of feeling safe in public, and I’m grieving the loss of so many people. But I also am celebrating the sheer will and creativity of people in the theatre: We’re going to come up with SOME way of keeping our ancient art form going, and maybe we’ll create a new art form along the way. Right now I’m involved in several of these ventures–projects that will be premiering soon on Zoom that wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for these strange times. And so many artists around the country have jumped in to make the time pass a little bit better for their fellow citizens stuck in quarantine. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next….
