Class over; play good?

Happy, New Year, all. I finished the Harvard Extension School course on Tuesday and sent off my 15-minute play and two short plays and a monologue to Instructor Ken today. I am SO relieved that I made it through the class and wrote a play that I am actually proud of. I've had a serious back problem since late July, and it was hard to sit through class during the semester. Nonetheless, I persevered, and I did what I had set out to do: write a new play. I won't say it's necessarily the *best* play I've ever written, but it is the play I've spent the most time on. I really had to consider who these characters were, what they wanted, and how their goals would be met. Ken noted that though they had the same internal conflicts, it worked b/c they meshed. I reworked some parts of the play that needed work, and in the last class my partner (assigned) said he really like the play (yay!). He basically had no issues with it, which was a huge relief. He thought maybe the monologues were a bit long, and he thought I might want to address them to the audience, but I just didn't think it would add anything (though I can think more about it before I send it off to any festivals, I guess).

We spent the last class reading (SILENTLY) our partner's play and then writing comments, which we then gave to the playwright who in turn wrote down five things he/she wanted to change about his/her play. I still don't understand why we didn't read the plays OUT LOUD, so we could see how they sounded, or why the partners didn't converse with one another after reading the plays, but I didn't run the class I just attended it. I actually didn't have anything I wanted to change (just a couple of items I wanted to think about), though others did, b/c I felt the play was done. (My partner had not revised his play at all that I could tell, so I basically rehashed what the rest of the class had said several weeks earlier. Oh, well.) The last 45 minutes were spent discussing how to get plays produced, and I did get some information, though I already knew some of it (e.g., Gary Garrison's LOOP and LOP). I don't like to think about it being discussed as a business, but that's because I don't make my living off my plays; they are just my creative outlet.

So, I guess we'll see what Ken says, and what festivals say. At least I wrote the play, thought a lot about it WHILE I was writing it, and AM inspired to write another play (or significantly revise it), and that was my goal. Now I can watch the Patriots beat the Jaguars with a load off my shoulder. Thanks for listening to my expose of the class over the last four months. Maybe I'll teach one someday. :)

Go, PATS! 16-0; 3 more to go!!!