Seeking Writers and Actors for Bi-Weekly Playwriting Group

Was one of your new year's resolutions to write more plays - or read and respond to more new plays?

Want to give yourself a deadline for playwriting on a regular basis? 
Want to help develop new plays and read new work?  

We might have a writing group for you.

This is a playwriting group that meets the first and third Monday of the month, ongoing now (started in fall 2022) through May of 2023, then kicking in again in September 2023 after a summer break for Minnesota Fringe Festival season.

During the beginning of the pandemic, we shifted to an online platform to continue meeting.  This fall we started experimenting with a hybrid format, those comfortable with meeting in person gathering in one another’s homes, and those who prefer or need to remain online joining the rest through our online meeting room.  (The first few months of meeting in this style worked pretty well, and we’re working out the kinks in the process as we go.) We’re keeping an eye on the progress of COVID-19 seasonally and will adjust as necessary.

We're just trying to keep creative while we wait for theater to truly re-open on a large scale again.  We go looking annually for new blood to join those already in the group, since both actors and writers tend to get busy in cycles sometimes and we like to have a regular core of people to keep the meetings well-attended and useful.

Material to be read could be scenes, could be an act, could be an entire draft of a whole play. We also throw out a writing challenge, just in case people want to sharpen their teeth (or pencils, or keyboards?) on something random, or use it to help jumpstart them past writer's block.

We invite actor friends in to help us read (hence the call for actors as well as writers). All are welcome to offer constructive feedback - it's neither supposed to be a lovefest nor a feeding frenzy. We're here to get better, but also to support one another. The idea is to get better collectively, rather than at one another's expense. It's not a place for fragile egos or manufactured personal drama (drama on the page only, please).

Monday Group Manifesto

Six Things We Consider Important About The Group and How It Runs

-Monday Group will invite actors to attend meetings and read most roles. Matthew will be the point dude for inviting actors, but all members should feel free to invite actors if they want someone specific to read.

-Monday Group is and will remain a group of playwrights. While the focus is on writing plays, members may bring any work that can be performed. Long pieces of prose are not appropriate.

-Monday Group members will aim to bring work to every meeting they can attend. Group members who are not pursuing individual projects can do a writing challenge, designed by the host of the next meeting. Group members are, however, not to waste any time beating themselves up if they cannot always meet this goal.

-Monday Group will hold to the Roundtable guidelines for feedback, by beginning the discussion with positive remarks and moving on to offer constructive, specific criticism.

-Monday Group will recruit new members on a mentor system. If you have a candidate for a new group member, after ascertaining the candidate's interest, check in with the group about the person. If the group agrees, bring the new person to a meeting and be willing to serve as their guide.

-Monday Group is about supporting each other in our growth as writers. We want to be, and recruit, writers who can learn from each other's work, and who do work that is inspiring.

So if you’re interested in sitting in on a meeting to see if it's the kind of thing that could help your own creative process, reach out to Matthew online (blog, facebook, twitter, instagram, etc.) or via matthewaeverett268 AT gmail DOT com