a hidden talent

Guess what everyone? I've written a play. A full, over an hour, one act play.

My husband's theatre-ness is finally rubbing off on me.

This wasn't out of the blue ... well, kind of. The Theatre Student Association (TSA) has a Halloween show every year as a fundraiser for the club. In the past they have done skits or student written shows with a Halloween theme. My husband, who's the president of the club, came home one night last week and was telling me that no one had shown interest in doing the show yet.

The next day, I was bored. So I put my fingers to the keyboard and started typing. All I knew was that it had to be a murder mystery of sorts and include dancing pumpkins, (it's a tradition thing.) And from there I couldn't stop. My mind just kept turning. After about two hours or so, I had seven characters, a location, a basic plot, and sixteen pages of script.

The next day ... fourteen more pages. I was so excited and hyped up that I just kept working on it. I would show pieces of it to my husband and he would get excited too. We would talk about the plot as it got more and more complicated. I would spend hours writing and re-writing as my husband was at rehearsal. I had another student look at it and give me pointers. I told my family about it and they all thought it was an interesting idea. I even had to cut a character out because my plot was getting too complicated. I kept working and typing and after about six days I had a finished play.

Before I finished it though, I had to submit it to TSA for consideration. And when I submitted it, I was the only play that had been submitted. But then I found out that a comedy group had asked TSA if they could perform for the Halloween show with a series of skits. And then the next day, another murder mystery show had been submitted that was shorter than mine and completed. I had competition.

My husband called me one night from rehearsal and said that the verdict was in ... the TSA presidency was going with both of the other shows. Even though I was a little heartbroken, I could understand why. The other shows were cheaper to produce, thus giving them more profit. Plus, the other shows would be easier to do in such a short amount of time. But still, it was hard to motivate myself to finish the show after that because I had written it specifically for Halloween. But I did; I finished it, and I am now in the process of perfecting it.

I'm going to resubmit my play in the spring and hopefully see it come to life on stage. In the meantime, I'm going to try my hand at writing another play, one without so many limits.

Who knows? Maybe I have a hidden theatre talent.