Last night, for the Holiday Party portion of our final meeting of 2014, we were treated to five one-minute Holiday plays – a growing tradition at Playwright’s Platform. Here’s a recap…
From Nick Hennesey, a New Year’s Eve countdown of unrequited love, because of his love, not for another her, but him–self, that is (and the power of suggestion is strong!).
From Vicki Meagher, A Christmas hacking of a reclusive superstar’s Twitter account, for the best gift ever to his #1 fan – a direct message.
From Marika Barnett, the post-holiday party, middle-of-the-night pillow talk of an amorous couple that turns out not to be–a couple (but he can hope).
From Margie Semilof, a last minute shopping encounter, Christmas Eve, at a hardware store, where the surly cashier turns therapist.
From Sandra Weintraub, a Christmas Eve confrontation between Santa Klaus and his irate wife, who knows what that scoundrel is REALLY up to every year at this time, and has had enough. Hand over that GPS, buster, or else…!
All in all, a terrific, creative, fun finale to a full year of playwriting. On my way back to the city from Lasell College on the T, I started thinking back on other playwriting highlights of 2014 for the Platform and its members. With some help this morning from Google to fill in the details, here is our 2014 by the numbers…
- 31 active members
- 44 actors in residence
- Our 42nd Festival, with 16 new plays, many receiving their world premiere performances
- 17 meetings with dozens and dozens of new play readings and thoughtful critiques
- 3 members with work featured in the Boston Theatre Marathon
- 2 members with work in SLAMBoston’s Winter Edition and 2 in the Spring
- 1 member with 2 plays in the Hovey Players Summer Shorts Festival and 1 with 1 in Company Theatre’s premiere annual Winter Shorts
- 1 re-launch of Boston’s only web video series of new play readings – Boston Play Café
- Another terrific private workshop with BU and Boston Playwright Theatre’s Kate Snodgrass – this year on what makes the opening pages of great plays great. Here’s my recap and three key takeaways: “Great Beginnings”
All that and more I certainly missed. Congrats and thanks to all for another great year of helping playwrights go from the page to the stage.