Am I A Winner Yet?
So I am currently on break from my #nakedangels Chicago Zoom and I JUST found out that I didn’t win the prize, but I won the night with Meg two weeks ago for our quarantinaversary festival!
Ok, to the gist was this. For our one year mark of zoom meeting cold reads together Connie (The musical director of NAC) decided to do a festival party of sorts instead of our usual reading style. So we had to write in to her to say we were interested in writing for it and why and then WAIT to be accepted rather than just submit to Josh in hopes of, well, in hopes of being accepted. But the goal for Connie’s project here was to be able to act out as someone else other than you yourself being the one to act out a read. If you were chosen to write, you had to be someone else. Then you had to BE your twin on camera, so my twin was the one who wrote the play that was being read. I did full makeup, a wig, a costume. I basically forced my eyes to pop out of my face all night (SOOO exhausting) and changed my voice. For hours I sounded cotton candy sweet and also crazy. I stayed in polite character all night because I was on camera the whole time and I NEEDED to win!
The usual Tuesdays at 9 cold reads are all about community and creative energy, writing and friendships. We check in as friends, laugh together and support one another. But on the March 30th Quarantinaversary I wanted to WIN!
I wrote a play short about a woman, Calliope, who was growing tired of being an abused housewife in 1963. She teaches a “class” about proper housewifery with cooking, napkin folding, home tips- women’s work. Well, she hates her life and snaps. So, I couldn’t write the play as myself. I had to become my twin. I decided to go out on a limb and make my character my twin, so we were generational twins rather than being two different eggs of the same fall.
It required one actor and a stage directions reader. The readers also had to submit information about her/his twin. So, I signed in on zoom as Calliope, and the actor, Meg, became Marjorie for this. So Marjorie read as a murderous Calliope Spencer, housewife extraordinaire.
Well, MEG MARJORIE WON the contest!!! And it was because her commitment to the work that I gave her that made her win!
She won the prize, but honestly, she won it for my play so I think that encompasses me as a winner for the festival as well and, though it’s silly, I am THRILLED by this because it means that the creative directors voted on OUR project as the BEST of the night!
So though I personally did not win based on my own black and white portrayal of Calliope on the Zoom call, my PLAY won because Meg is amazing always and especially with what I gave her.
So I take that as a win for myself. I won. I won the festival. My actor won the festival. Huzzah for us! thisisobviouslymyfirstwineverinplaywritingevents
