Internet = amazing

I am just amazed at the power of the internet. It's been less than two weeks since I posted my latest one-acts on my website and I already have 5 productions of Laughing Stock lined up and 3 for Attention Detention. I am truly stunned.

Were it not for the internet, it's very possible I would be writing in a vacuum. I would have play upon play piled on my desk, just waiting for a production. But ever since I started my website (almost 10 years ago...egads!), teachers and students around the world have had access to my work.

Once a play has been produced several times, it sort of takes on a life of its own. It gets interpreted and re-interpreted, and crammed with so many great ideas, that it's almost impossible to remember which ones were mine and which ones came from the students. That's why I love high school theater! If I added every great idea students incorporated into my plays, they would all be six hours long. So instead, I consider what I have learned and put that into my next play.

However, getting that first production of a play can be very difficult. Before the internet, I imagine playwrights lugging manuscripts across the country and leaving them on doorsteps. Not my idea of a good time. Now I can workshop my scripts, polish them off, and then post them online for the whole world to see. Much easier than a road trip, I'd say.

I owe a lot of my success to a number of schools that have been very supportive and loyal to my work over the years. High schools in Rosetown and Carlyle, Saskatchewan have faithfully produced my plays over the past 4 years. Same goes for dozens of schools in the US. To all of these schools, I am deeply grateful.

"Lucky me, lucky me" is how I usually start a day of writing. Whenever I find myself plagued with writers' block, I think of the enormous number of kids that have inspired me over the years. Then I keep going, writing for that one student who will one day act in this play and discover a whole bunch self esteem they never knew they had. Just the thought of it gives me chills.

So thank you, internet. You have been amazing to me.