Hi folks
You’re all still cranking along, churning out more pages every day, which is good to see!
The output is holding pretty steady day over day, which is impressive.
The rough numbers for yesterday’s submissions for challenge 16 look like this:
77 playwrights, with material totaling 276 pages
(same number writers, and more pages, than yesterday)
(The equivalent of two full-length plays again, plus a half-hour one act this time :)
Keep up the good work!
Happy writing!
And I know I say it every day but some of you need to hear it,
if you don’t manage to write one day this month, don’t beat yourself up about it,
just get up the next day and write something.
So let’s get you that writing prompt, and I’ll get back to all the rest of that…
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Challenge #19 - Hidden Herald
Write Wednesday, November 19th - or earlier if you like
Due: Thursday, November 20th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
As outlined in previous years’ challenge posts, I often have to traverse the skyways of Saint Paul in order to deliver checks to the bank for my day job in fundraising for higher education. But earlier this year, a handful of those skyways were shut down because a particular set of buildings got closed down, so parts of the route became inaccessible. Now I have to walk outside to do the walk to and from the bank. It’ll get a bit more challenging in winter but for the spring and summer and fall it hasn’t been so bad. Fresh air, sunshine and breezes, for starters. Plus, I see a different side of the city that I missed walking above it rather than down on the sidewalks. Sidewalks in both Minneapolis and Saint Paul are full of unexpected art sometimes.
On the sidewalk route to the bank in Saint Paul, for instance, I ran across a large sticker with a QR code and a pigeon, hailing access to something called the Hidden Herald.
And it has a note on it that it’s city approved, so the street cleaners aren’t to remove it but leave it in place, and there’s a email address to contact with questions.
The pigeon has a cartoon dialogue bubble that says “Hello! I’m Herald. You’ve found a hidden story. Scan the code to listen.”
And below the QR code there’s a logo for Wonderlust Productions… hey, wait a minute, I know those guys, they’re a theater company!
Sure enough, my friends Leah and Alan have branched out a bit in their collaborative theater creations and commissioned two seasons of short audio plays that are accessed through stickers on the sidewalk and posters in storefronts all around town, unpacking the stories and history of the city and its people.
You can check out the details on their website but here’s some of the overview of the project:
2nd Season of Hidden Herald is out now!
What do you see when you walk downtown St. Paul? What do you think you know about this place by looking at the building facades, the people driving past, sitting on park benches, or sleeping on the sidewalk? We think there’s a lot more to know than meets the eye about the people and places who make this city special and make this city run.
Wonderlust Productions is excited to release the second season of Hidden Herald on July 11th. Accessible via QR code on the streets of St. Paul, Hidden Herald tells the hidden stories of the city. Did you know there’s a dragon in Lake Phalen? A spaceship hovering above Union Depot? Who IS the MPR Raccoon really?
The second season returns with two kid-oriented series; an adult scavenger hunt; some twisted Twilight Zone-type series, St. Paul’s gangster history, the Hamm’s Beer Bear, and more. This year, we’re expanding and you can find Hidden Herald stickers in Downtown, Lowertown, around Lake Phalen, and up and down Payne Avenue.
Here’s how you can listen:
1. Be intrepid!
Wander downtown St. Paul and look for a sticker like this on the ground. Most are on sidewalks, and some are posters in store windows. Scan the QR code to listen to the audio play. Simple. Free!
Follow our social media channels for extra information about plays and their locations.
2. Get a beautiful guided tour!
Get a beautiful paper map, designed by local artist Jephemera, to carry with you on your adventures. Pick up at one of our partner locations (listed below) and go! Reuse and share as you like.
3. Get a digital navigator!
Get a customized google map to help you navigate between the plays.
4. Listen online!
Visit our Virtual Adventure to access all of the plays online.
Note: Despite our best efforts, we cannot guarantee that all stickers will be available at all times. If you believe a sticker is missing, please email Frances at frances@wlproductions.org, and we will do our best to replace it in a timely manner.
My playwright friend Anne and a composer friend of hers collaborated on a similar idea, geocaching sound files from their musical tribute to arctic explorers around the walking path of a local nature preserve.
Now, you could either think about creating your own walking adventure/short audio plays.
Or you could use the device of it inside a play, people leaving clues or messages for one another, communicating that way because they can’t communicate in a normal way (for any number of reasons, take your pick, it doesn’t take a pandemic to isolate or separate people so they have to find clever ways to close the distance and form connections).
Perhaps it’s a scavenger hunt, an anniversary present, a last will and testament, a game of cat and mouse.
It could be whimsical, melancholy, life and death, totally up to you.
Audio books shouldn’t have all the fun.
Sometimes it’s nice to have a play in your ears, too.
Or someone talking to you that you know.
Or that you miss.
Or that you’re trying to meet.
There in your head with you, and yet not there at all.
Take any of that and swirl it around and see what you come up with.
If it gives you an idea, great - go for it!
If not, as always, you can just write whatever you want, ignore the prompt. Just keep on scribbling and typing.
Happy writing!
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If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can
try 2021’s challenge #19: Random Phrase Generator part 3
Or try 2022’s challenge #19: Frogs
Or try 2023’s Challenge #19: Mystery Office or Newspaper Home
Or try 2024’s challenge #19: Planning, Pride, Fright or Language
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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How to submit your work for Challenge #19
We’re streamlining the process this year with a Google form,
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdy-wyjz-IITaNsOkXM1zVQu_yrt_o7E4Vp2eQnr-8VNnu49w/viewform?usp=header
but you still have multiple options for how you submit your playwriting output for the day.
After you enter the required fields of
email,
name,
challenge number (for today, that’d be 19 :)
and page count,
you can submit your writing in one of four ways:
Save your script as a PDF or Word Doc and upload that document to the Google form.
OR
Post
your script online (on your personal website, as a blog post, or as a
Google doc) and put a link to that online script in the Google form.
OR
Copy/paste your work from another source directly into the Google form
OR
Type directly into the Google form.
(Whichever option you choose, you can leave the other ones blank.)
Write Wednesday, November 19th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Thursday, November 20th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
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And because we call can get in our own way so easily, here’s some words of reassurance on the basics of this month:
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 Format
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 “Succeeding” or “Failing”
Don’t Stress About What You’re Turning In Each Day
Don’t Stress about November 27th (however you recognize the holiday weekend) - 2025 edition
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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 11 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 makes sense to you.
It just needs to be something.
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And that something can be:
Lights up.
A person walks on.
They find a sticker on the ground with a QR code.
They snap a picture, follow a link, access an audio file.
Suddenly someone is there, just over their shoulder, telling them secrets.
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.
And take good care of yourselves, and each other.
Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)
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