Hi folks
One last public service announcement:
Please vote today if you haven’t already. Things are way too close for comfort pretty much everywhere in the country.
So I will reiterate what I said yesterday:
There will be amnesty on the 12 noon Central Time deadline just for today, Tuesday 11/8 if you vote first and then write.
If voting has caused you to miss the 12 noon deadline, yesterday and today only, that will be fine.
(Also, if you happened to vote early November 1 through 6 and that’s why you missed the deadline that day - I will also be persuaded, just let me know.)
For the cadre of writers located in Minnesota, if you are not registered, we have same day registration (for now, anyway). You can vote on the same day you register if that is today or tomorrow.
The Minnesota Secretary of State website (currently run by someone who genuinely wants every eligible citizen to be able to vote, and as easily as possible) is full of all the information you need about voting - including a sample ballot tool with includes the names and offices of everyone running and links to their campaign websites (if they have one) so you can learn more about them.
Secretary of State is on the Minnesota ballot this year, and let’s just say that the challenger doesn’t think we need all this early voting, and would like to see more voter ID, thank you very much. They also appear to not be entirely convinced about the results of the last presidential election. Needless to say, I did not vote for this person.
On another blog, I lay out some of the reasons I voted for who I voted for in Minnesota, if you’re curious.
But regardless of how you vote, the important thing is that we all do so.
Democracy only works if we participate.
Otherwise, you’re just letting someone else decide who gets to make all the policy decisions that impact your life and the life of those you love.
My goddaughter, who cannot yet vote, guides the way I think about all of my voting decision.
So again, deadline amnesty continues for today only….
Vote first,
Write later.
Please vote.
I thank you.
Let’s get you that writing prompt…
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Challenge #9 - “Whose Meadow Is This?”
Due: Thursday, November 10th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
The route I’m running right now on the path beside the West River Parkway along the Mississippi River goes by a clearing that has a sign that says “Annie Young Meadow.” I looked it up, and it was named after Annie Young, who had been a seven-term parks commissioner in Minneapolis, serving for over 12 years, who died of a chronic progressive lung disease at the age of 75.
Hearing things like that make me grateful for every easy breath I draw.
And I was reminded of a song from a musical adaptation of a Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale called “King Thrushbeard” - sort of a variation on the plot of “Taming of the Shrew.” A proud princess makes life for everyone around her very difficult, and spurns every suitor presented to her as a potential husband. One of her suitors, Prince Thrushbeard, doubles back, disguised as a simple peasant, flatters the princess’ father the king - and the king decides he’s going to marry his daughter off whether she likes it or not and this guy’s as good as anyone else. So the princess and her new fake peasant husband set off on foot for their new home. And along the way, the princess comments on how lovely everything is - the fields and forests and villages and castles - and when she’s told that all this belongs to Prince Thrushbeard, the princess bemoans the fact that she turned him away. She might have been a queen rather than a peasant’s wife. And of course, secrets in the end are revealed, happy endings occur, the usual…
I know about this obscure musical because I helped write it. The real star of the production, however, was the composer and lyricist, a gifted artist who I really need to reconnect with. We met our freshman year in college. He need a book-writer for the musical, and he insisted I write a play without regard to the fact that songs already existed. He wanted a strong script for the songs to live in. I learned a lot about both musicals and collaboration from this guy, Stephen Gawronski.
And the song he wrote for that section of the story, conjured from my memory by the vision of that meadow I run past a couple of times a week, still rolls around in my head because it’s so lovely. The words alone are something, I just wish you could hear the music the way I do in my head. It goes, in part…
PRINCESS ELAINE:
Whose forest is this, thriving here?
Whose forest is this, striving here,
Friendly and endless and whistling with cold
Wild and beguiling and carelessly bold
So ancient and green,
So fit for a queen,
Whose is this forest, fair and fine?
“PEASANT”/THRUSHBEARD:
It is Prince Thrushbeard’s.
PRINCESS:
Then it might have been mine.
“PEASANT”:
If you should want, I’ll plant you a tree.
It won’t be a forest but someday
You can sit in its shade with me
And we’ll dream of all we planned we’d be
When we were strong and smart and fools, and free.
PRINCESS:
Whose meadow is this, glistening?
Whose meadow is this, listening
Patiently, tenderly, trembling with fear,
Stately and silent and staid and sincere?
So lovely and fine, I wish it were mine.
Whose is this meadow, grandly grown?
“PEASANT”:
It is Prince Thrushbeard’s.
PRINCESS:
How I wish I had known.
“PEASANT”:
If you should want, I’ll clear you some land
It won’t be a meadow but someday
We can walk through it hand in hand,
And we’ll dream of all we planned we’d be
When we strong and smart and fools…
PRINCESS:
And free…
And it goes on from there, and there’s more at the front of the song as well but it’s Stephen’s song, not mine so I don’t want to lay out the whole thing in this post. It’s just such a beautiful love song that’s not a love song between two people who don’t know who they’re singing it to, but wish they did.
He was writing songs like this when he was still in high school and then just barely in college. It was because of his talent that the adaptation we worked on was chosen as the winner of the playwriting competition and given a full production at the end of our freshman year, which, looking back on it now, is kind of nuts. Two freshmen newbies getting a full production from their college theater department. But he was that talented.
So…
Meadows,
the beauty of love songs and love stories,
hidden or mistaken identities,
the poetry of song lyrics,
there’s gotta be something worth mining there, right?
It keeps floating to the front of my mind so I’m tossing it your way.
Take from it whatever element inspires you, and write something.
Or ignore me, which is always an option, and write whatever you want.
Just write something today.
And reach out to someone you hadn’t thought about in a while who was a formative part of your youth.
Because time passes.
Lungs, and heart, fail.
Meadows get named after people who protected green spaces but didn’t live to see them thrive.
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can try 2021’s challenge #9:
The Bechdel Test
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 Forget To Vote TODAY: Tuesday, November 8th
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 #9
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 #9
(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: Thursday, November 10th, 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 Thursday 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 21 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 person comes upon a sunlit meadow.
They stop, and contemplate life for a bit.
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.
(After you vote, of course :)
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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