Hi folks
The election distracted me temporarily from the fact that we passed a milestone - our first week of writing is in the books!
The first seven days are complete (though my sorting through all your many submissions as yet is not, but I shall get there with more fun numbers to report in the near future)
Congrats to all who’ve been cranking out the pages and prioritizing your own writing a little bit (or a lot) each day. Well done.
And, as always, if you miss a day, don’t waste any time beating yourself up about it. Just write again the next day.
On with week two!
Now, let’s get you that writing prompt…
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Challenge #10 - Food Vs. Humans
Due: Friday, November 11th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
This one’s a bit sillier. Hopefully you’ll find some useful fodder in it nonetheless.
I’ve just been surprised by the creative uses of food in current events lately.
Though it was a bit mean, I have to admit that I was amused to learn that a British tabloid, upon reading in the Economist that they likened new prime minister Liz Truss’s longevity in her new job to “having the shelf life of a lettuce,” they went out and got a head of lettuce, put a pair of googly eyes on it, a mouth, and a blond wig, and gave it a livestream on the internet next to a picture of PM Truss and it went viral.
And sure enough, though the lettuce was getting a little brown around the edges at the end, the head of lettuce did outlast Liz Truss as Prime Minister.
You can check out the celebration in this article.
The tabloid also took the party to Parliament. “We hired a projector. We got a picture of the lettuce, and we shone it on the side of Westminster Palace. And it's the sort of final celebratory, the lettuce won. And, you know, we thought we wanted to go out with a bang. And there it was.”
Meanwhile, a man pretending to be an old lady in a wheelchair tried to smear cake all over the Mona Lisa in the Louvre.
And climate change protestors have been throwing soup at other works of art - in a long, strange history of attacking paintings as a form of protest for all kinds of things, or just random vandalism in museums.
Could a character in your play be in competition with an item of food - and perhaps lose to said inanimate object?
Could a character be using food as a unique form of personal expression?
You have permission to play with your food.
Go forth and write.
Or, as always, just ignore me and go write something else.
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #10:
Cars
Or, you know, just ignore the prompts altogether and write whatever you want - as long as you’re writing and turning it in by the deadline, that’s all that matters for the challenge :)
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Friendly Reminders - Answers To Common Questions:
(Follow the links to read me expounding on these items :)
Don’t Stress About Writing A Full Play
Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt
No. Really. I Mean It. Don’t Stress About Sticking To The Writing Prompt
Don’t Stress About Finishing An Idea (You Can Add Later)
Don’t Stress About Thanksgiving
Don’t Stress About “Succeeding” or “Failing”
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How to submit your work for Challenge #10
You have options. They are:
Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and send as an attachment to an email sent to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com
OR
Copy and paste your script in the body of an email and send it to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com
OR
Post your script online (as a Google doc, or in a blog post, on your own personal website, etc.) - email a link to this script to ThresholdWritingChallenge@gmail.com
(If you’re going to Google doc route, just make sure to have the document public, or give permissions to our email address to open it)
When emailing us, make the subject line of your email - Challenge #10
(That just helps us sort through the email more quickly)
(Or, you know, just reply to this email if you want :)
OR
Post the link for the online document option above in the comments
section on this very blog post for this very challenge on the writing
challenge blog below
Again, this is: Due: Friday, November 11th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
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And, just to reassure you, no, we are not going to be sticklers about you following these directions down to the minutest detail - the important thing is that you write, and then that you share it with us, so we can keep track of who’s writing every day.
Also, no, there is no penalty for finishing and submitting early - but it also isn’t a race, so give yourself all the time up til 12 noon Central Time on Friday to write if you need it. When you’re done, you’re done.
Again, remember, it doesn’t need to be great, it doesn’t even need to be responding to this prompt (the prompt is just there so you’re not staring at a blank screen to start with no idea what to write about :)
Doesn't even need to be complete - you could have the beginning or the middle or the end of an idea, maybe two out of three but not all, that's still fine. This is all about getting things started, you can write more later. You have 20 more days to build on whatever you come up with today, if you want. Just get anything on the page, even if won't make sense to anyone else, as long as it make sense to you.
It just needs to be something.
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And that something can be:
Lights up.
A head of lettuce wearing a wig throws a party.
Cue the disco ball!
Lights down.
The End
That’s always your escape hatch, every day.
That’s your base line.
Build on it.
Have fun.
Don’t stress.
Make an impulsive decision and run with it.
Breathe.
You’ve got the day.
Just write.
Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)
Coming Up:
Threshold Theater’s New Play Reading Series
A reading of “Leviathan” by Bethany Dickens Assaf
Saturday, November 19, 2022 - 7pm
The Black Hart of Saint Paul - 1415 University Avenue West in St. Paul
Our video recording of our third live play reading in the New Play Reading series, Sam Walsh's "The Visible," is up on our YouTube channel (available to stream through the end of November) -
Support Threshold Theater on Give to the Max Day, November 17th
(Or feel free to give early, any time between November 1st through 16th)
Here's the link: https://www.givemn.org/story/Kssucf
"Write. Find a way to keep alive and write. There is nothing else to say."
- James Baldwin
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