Hi folks
More words of encouragement for artists from Erica Elan
If you’re questioning the significance of making art right now…
Creating art right now is grounding because it regulates the parasympathetic nervous system, slowing down heart rate and steadying breath.
Please keep making art because…
It can survive censorship: coded visuals, allegory, metaphor, and abstraction can evade repression.
Thank you for creating
As for the status of the challenge, I’m still playing catchup on the flurry of input from all you very prolific playwrights. It’s fun to have so much content to play around with the different sorting options on the spreadsheet the Google form creates, and see the number of lines for each submission grow and grow and grow.
Keep up the good work, keep writing, keep submitting your playwriting output through that Google form.
OFT-ASKED QUESTION OF THE DAY
“Did I miss an email, has the next challenge writing prompt gone out yet?”
Here’s a quick way to know if the challenge prompt emails have gone out.
Is it on the blog already?
I don’t post the challenge to the blog for the day until I’ve sent it out to everyone by email first.
So if the next post isn’t on the blog yet, the emails haven’t gone out yet.
I’m still getting into a rhythm of a regular time of day to send it out. Between to the two day jobs and the fact that I’m also part of the negotiating team for the first union contract for our new bargaining unit at the Guthrie Theater, my schedule’s a little more fluid than it normally is.
My goal is always to get it out sometime in the morning - when in the morning, early or later, is harder to tell yet.
But if you’re ever wondering, check the blog.
If it’s there and you didn’t get an email, and it hasn’t gone to your spam or “All Mail” folder (for the Gmailers among us), then send me a note. I’ve got a routine to make sure I don’t miss anyone, but I’m not infallible.
Also, if you check the blog, then you’ll also have the prompt and access to the Google form link (which is the same for all the challenges, but I send it out every day anyway, just to make it easier to find).
SIDE NOTE, AGAIN, ABOUT VOTING…
Minnesota playwrights, you have one last day of early voting yet today, Monday 11/3, when I’m sending this challenge out.
You can find early voting location information, and Election Day polling place information at the Minnesota Secretary of State’s website
Deadline amnesty for taking time out to vote is still in effect for the next several days. Full details on that in this post.
Happy writing to you all!
Let’s get you that writing prompt…
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Challenge #4 - Mirrors, Discovery, Leaves and Lizards
Write Tuesday, November 4th - or earlier if you like
Due: Wednesday, November 5th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
This suggested writing prompt comes to us from Threshold Theater company member (and stage manager) June Haider.
June provided me with an assortment of fun phrases to play around with, so here’s three of them to provide you with some random different kinds of inspiration to get started:
Infinite hall of mirrors
Who doesn’t love a hall of mirrors? Whether it’s Versailles, a funhouse or a horror movie, halls of mirrors get quite a workout in culture. This can of course, be literal or metaphorical. Also, just playing around with the idea of a mirror, mirroring behavior or mirror image might lead to something as well.
An already discovered discovery
The thing that leaps to my mind here is the idea of taking credit for something that someone else found or created first, such as:
I’m sure the Native Americans and the Vikings have a few things to say about Columbus being credited with discovering America.
Also, it’s been argued that Rosalind Franklin probably should have gotten a share of that Nobel Prize that was given to Crick, Watson and Wilkins for the discovery of the DNA double helix.
And supporters of Hilma af Klint would like a word with Kandinsky and Mondrian about who really started the school of abstract painting.
Emotional support leaf
Oddly enough, the daily newsletter from local online news source MinnPost a few months back landed in my inbox with the subject line
“My emotional support lizard”
And the opening paragraph was:
When I lived in a more tropical clime, a lizard would visit me daily in the shower. I called him Luzardo. His presence had a calming effect on me, and I grew to appreciate how the company of different beings can affect one’s mood. And while Luzardo wasn't a certified emotional support animal, it got me thinking: What happens if your landlord doesn’t approve of your emotional support animal? Can they charge extra fees, or disallow certain breeds?
And when I think of leaves lately, my mind immediately goes to the graphic novels and Netflix series “Heartstopper”
But that’s just me. Where does your mind go when you see those phrases?
Play around with any or all of that.
Or the exact opposite of it.
Or ignore it entirely and do whatever you like on the page.
Just write something.
********************
If you’re not interested in this prompt, you can
try 2021’s challenge #4: Science Fiction and Fantasy
Or try 2022’s challenge #4: Smackdown
Or try 2023’s Challenge #4: Wonderland (from Threshold Theater co-founder and Technical Director Nick Mrozek)
Or try 2024’s challenge #4: Asteroid
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 #4
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 4 :)
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 Tuesday, November 4th - or earlier if you like
Again, this is: Due: Wednesday, November 5th, 12pm noon Central Time
(1pm Eastern Time, 11am Mountain Time, 10am Western Time for the US Time Zones)
**********************
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 :)
Deadline Amnesty for Voting (and other handy challenge tips) - 2025 edition
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.
We will be VERY understanding about technical difficulties and how they can screw up making the deadline on the first few days. No need to fret about anything except the writing (and hopefully that’s not something causing you to fret too much either :)
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 Wednesday 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 26 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.
*************************
And that something can be:
Lights up.
A female scientist wanders into a hall of mirrors.
A leaf wafts through the air nearby and leads her toward an exit.
She tries to follow it, though she does keep bumping into mirrors, following the image of the lear at times, rather than the leaf itself.
The leaf persists.
The scientist persists.
They make their way together offstage.
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 :)
And take good care of yourselves, and each other.
Matthew A. Everett
Literary Director
Threshold Theater
(he/him/his)
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