A month of Playwriting with 28 Plays later – Marie Cooper

February Playwriting Retreat for 28 Plays Later

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I’m trying to get organised for the month ahead for 28 Plays Later. I’m writing this blog post now because I know what’s coming. Oh, my God! That sounds like something out of a horror novel. My time is short, so I write this to you now. Knowing that soon it will be too late.

I titled this ‘Playwriting Retreat’, but it is more of a self-imposed playwriting lockdown to be precise. I’m not going anywhere. No villa overlooking an olive grove in Italy. No sitting on a balcony overlooking a coastal town in Portugal. Not that I ever do, but one can dream.

February is 28 Plays Later Month

28 Plays Later is like Scriptly Writing. Unsurprisingly, because it is organised by the same peeps at The Literal Challenge. Except this time, instead of writing a new screenplay every day for 14 days, the participants write a new play, every day, during the entire month of February. 

It is possible to register for 28 Plays Later on their website, right up until the 28th of January, if you fancy giving playwriting a try. Or just to have fun, get your creative juices flowing and generate some fabulous new ideas.

I am incredibly excited. I created some unusual, imaginative and funny pieces of work during Scriptly writing. The prompts push you out of your comfort zone, playing within different genres and get you thinking upside down and sideways.

As Scriptly Writing was for the screen, I cannot easily bring those scripts to life. The theatre, however, is home. Work I create this month should be possible to produce on stage, without needing a massive budget and a film crew.

It would be a worthy feat of creative endurance alone if the 28 Plays challenge was all a person had to focus on for one month. But, unfortunately, most of us have many other distractions in life. I don’t live in a secluded wood cabin with the constant warmth of a crackling log fire and nothing but the occasional critter visit to distract me from the page. Wishful thinking.

I have other projects coming up. I need to give quality time to my family. I have roleplay work booked, I’m judging a scriptwriting competition, a very needy feline and an addiction to social media to contend with. I also need to put another coat of paint on the bathroom wall. If I am ever to have any hope of finally fully covering up the bile-esque magnolia colour underneath. Not to mention finding the time to get out to exercise. And I really need exercise. My legs are forgetting how ligaments work.

Playwriting Project

I have a Walking Plays project due, mid-February, which I am working on with some incredibly talented playwrights. I will be writing a short play to hopefully be included in a podcast later in the year. I am likely to be busy, especially at the beginning of the month, so I plan to keep off social media, my website and the grid as much as possible. At least, until the end of February, starting from tomorrow.

Let’s see how well that goes. I won’t be 100% banning myself. I am an introvert, not a psychopathic masochist. Social media is my favourite mode of communication, after memes. But my online, lurking presence will be much reduced. So much so, someone might even notice.

What is Writer’s Hour and How does it Help?

Writer’s Hour is a regular, sacred, online, writing space that is invaluable to get things done. I will be spending more time there throughout 28 Plays Later to get focused and get the work done. I usually show up for the morning sessions, but will more than likely be at the other sessions now too. Writers’ Hour has become my writing hearthstone. I don’t know what I would do without it. 

London Writer’s Salon runs four 8 am writing sessions across the world every day. One London time, one New Zealand time, and two across the US time zones. You can sign up to join Writers’ Hour here. Just pick which sessions you want to attend. They email the Zoom link over 15 minutes before each session begins.

Happy Happy Sleep Joy

I heard hammering outside over the weekend. An estate agent had put up a For Sale sign. The noisy, next-door neighbours are selling their house. This is the best news I have had in years. Soon there may be no more slamming of doors, banging, shouting and dogs barking late at night and into the early hours of the morning, waking me up. 

When I realised that I may be able to sleep at night again, after months of trying to cope with sleep deprivation, just between you and me, I may have cried with joy, just a little.
If I were a religious person, I would pray for a writer to move in next door. Even better, a writer who’s a cat person, who likes gardening and sunlight, and loves to sleep at night, so that I can too.

Anyway. Short of anything exciting happening between now and the end of February, that’s me done until then. Maybe see you at 28 Plays Later and/or Writers’ Hour.


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