193 Monologues

193 monologues within roughly 7 hours. No breaks. That's what I subjected myself to today. To find one girl that we're calling back. I've officially a new respect for casting directors.

The SPF casting director let me sit in for the "college age" open call today. I had to pee for the last four hours but I didn't want to disrupt the flow of auditions and I didn't want to miss a thing. This one girl did a Sam Shepherd monologue about urinating. It felt like I was doing a David Blaine stunt.

Of course, I didn't have to sit through all that. That's the casting director's job. I'm just one of the playwrights and none of the other teams opted to sit in on it. But the fact of it is, I've got this incredible creative team doing all this work on my behalf and I don't want to take any of it for granted. I could essentially lay back for the next two months, but I want to feel like a part of this process.

I mean, I *am* a part of this process. I'm making sure that this production remains true to my intentions and aspirations for the piece. But I'm so accustomed to the level of theater where everybody gets their hands dirty and everyone does the heavy-lifting, it's weird to just let all these other people do the tough work. Sure, writing's no picnic in the park, but some of things I wrote into this play create some very real logistical issues that will need to be solved. From casting to the amount of blood on the stage. (I didn't *think* I wrote a lot of blood into it...)

It was a good experience today. It was tough but it was fascinating.

I'm going to try to focus more on getting writing done while my team gets to work. Two more full-length plays this year. A completed draft of my new one by the time the SPF month launches. I think these are reasonable goals that I can surpass. It's amazing what one can accomplish when you clear away distractions...