Do you have a resolution? I do.
I'm beginning to love resolutions. It helps me give focus to a year where I often serve at the whim of others' decisions. I did well in 2008: teaching myself guitar, making good progress on some writing projects, and largely quitting one particular bad habit.
My 2009 New Year's Resolution? Read more plays.
I'm no stranger to blogging, having written about comics and gaming at various points over the past few years. I enjoy the discipline of pinning my reactions down in words, and the high-wire act of public stunt blogging brings even more fun to the mix. But while I enjoy comics and gaming, I just don't have the passion for them that I do for theatre.
So, in this particular stunt blog, I'll read a play every seven days in 2009 and post about it on Monday. 52 plays in 52 weeks, a couple hundred words about each.
I'll be doing daily posts through Monday's first play to kick this off: explaining the whys, there wherefores, and the groundrules. While this is a personal challenge, it will be a lot more fun with readers and comments and suggestions. So please let me know what you're thinking.
If you do want to play along with the home version of the game, here's what's on tap for the start of the year. On the 20th of January, the political landscape will change and there's a stack of problems the new administration will need to deal with. I decided to pick four plays that speak to me about The State We're In:
January 5: Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets
January 12: The Guys by Anne Nelson
January 19: Black Watch by Gregory Burke
January 26: Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks
Posts
2 comments:
This is a great idea!! Of course, like every teacher of dramatic lit, I have one million opinions about the "important" works of 20th and 21st century theatre. . . No list of that era is complete without Angels in America. It's one of the most important plays of the era. I think Shepard's best is A Lie of the Mind. Buried Child is overrated, imo. I think the list you have is very heavy on the "old white guys" (not that I don't love them) and leaves a bunch of important playwriting out-- one Albee, one Pinter, one O'Neill, and one Wilder are definitely enough, esp if you need to make room for Ntozake Shange, David Henry Hwang, Naomi Iizuka, Luis Valdez, Maria Irene Fornes, Wendy Wasserstein-- any of whom have easily had as much (if not more) influence on western dramaturgy as, say, Kaufman and Hart.
I'm techtarded and struggling to figure out how to post comments-- for some reason it's not letting me post on any other of your entries. Perhaps that's for the best, no? The last thing you need is me bloviating about plays all day long.
I'm going to update that list with a link to your comment. I took a very specific one-sheet aimed at highschoolers who weren't reading any plays, and tried to turn it into something more.
- You are right about Angels In America - slipped my mind.
- Lie Of The Mind? Really? Perhaps I'll re-read it this year, but I consider it a minor work.
- Yes, it is tremendously heavy on the old white guys. The list was designed as a list of authors, then suggesting some works. So including Shange is more like kicking Pinter off ... not just one play. And that was the sticking point for me.
- I included Kaufman and Hart and Simon with a bit of a cringe, but these lists tend to be such drama-centric affairs.
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