Writing About What Matters When Perpetually Understaffed
This meme made me laugh this week.
I laughed out of recognition of course. The overwhelm is real, trying to get to all the things, creative and administrative—and remember to squeeze in a laundry or two.
Kirk and I are preparing to give a “Playwriting About A Craft” workshop at the Playwrights Guild of Canada annual conference at 10 am on October 28, at the Elgin Winter Garden Theatre Centre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1M4.
On the surface, yes, it’s about how to write a play about a craft, as we’ve done with The Knitting Pilgrim, the show which we’ve continued to tour for over 90 shows now.
The Knitting Pilgrim tells the story of Kirk’s experience knitting 3 giant tapestries, designed in the style of stained-glass windows, that look at the commonalities and conflicts of the three Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The project took 15 years for Kirk to complete, and when he finished it, there was no evident place to exhibit the installation, so we wrote a one-man show about it, and have since toured it hither and yon. (He most recently performed the show this month at CB Nuit in Corner Brook NFLD, and PEI Fibrefest in Charlottetown, PEI.)
But as Kirk and I prepare, looking at the content of the workshop more deeply, we realize it’s not just about writing theatre about a craft—it’s about combining playwriting with a passion.
What’s something you care a lot about, believe in, want to share with the world? What do you want to say about that thing? What do you want to say about the intersection between you and that passion?
That’s what we all want to write about, I think, on a deep level.
It’s not just the what, but the why.
It’s an essential thing. In this busy, busy, fast-paced world (see meme above about being perpetually understaffed), we need to block off time to think about these most central things. It’s what makes our writing meaningful. It’s what makes our lives meaningful.
If you’re a playwright attending the conference, I hope to see you at the workshop, to talk about how to write about those important things.
But writers of all stripes—this is what we have in common. The desire to communicate our passion to others. Give them a tiny word-window into our world.
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To buy a pass to the fast-approaching PGC conference, Oct 27-28, in Toronto: https://playwrightsguild.ca/2024-pgc-conference-2/
Our Workshop: Playwrighting About A Craft with Kirk Dunn & Claire Ross Dunn
Time: Oct 28, 10 am
Location: Elgin Winter Garden Theatre Centre, 189 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON, M5B 1M4