Wednesday, June 17, 2009

a new writing venture

As some of you know I do a bit of writing outside the occasional blog. I have even been paid minuscule amounts for my work, and I do have about five fans who follow my weekly column over at the Spartanburg Spark. Recently I delved into the realm of playwright.

Every year my church puts on an event for the kids. It's kind of like VBS with slime and slippy slides. We do a stage production with music and drama, some lesson time then the kids go outside to play games involving getting wet and dirty. I have been part of the drama team for four years now.

Usually we buy scripts from a place for this. IT is the same company we use for our children's services during the school year. However it was decided to use more original material. All well and good as the concepts were sound. What was lacking as we neared the event was actual scripts for several of the segments. That is where yours truly came in.

I've been editing existing scripts for over a year, making them work with our cast and individual audience needs. This was the first time that I had ever attempted to write a skit from scratch. I ended up writing three in just over a week, with a little editing help from a friend who has a theater background. I must say it was quite the experience seeing what I had envisioned and put to paper being demonstrated for all to see. No one booed at the end, or had fallen asleep so I guess my playwriting skills are ok, of course the actors did quite well too.

I just may have to try writing an original drama again some day soon

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