Our summer break is behind us, the season of autumn means it's time to start meeting and germinating new plays again.
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 biweekly on Mondays, ongoing now, starting up again next Monday 9/11 and continuing through May of 2024, before our next summer break begins.
During
the beginning of the pandemic, we shifted to an online platform to
continue meeting. Last 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. (We've learned to roll with technical difficulties :)
As seasons change, we
go looking 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