I have a terrible cold.  My third cold this year.  I haven’t had a cold for ages.  Working with kids in the theatre training program in Danville, Kentucky seems to have given me some sort of natural immunity…until now.  Out here in Montana they must grow their own western strain of bugs and they love me… can’t get enough of  me.   Today I’m drowning in… Hmmm, you expected me to say “snot” now didn’t you? No?  Well, I wanted to but I thought it was a little too crass.  So, lets look at a more pleasant way to drown… in manuscripts.   After a winter hiatus from reading plays and focusing instead on editing the best for publishing in our online catalog, I’m back to working my way through the huge pile of manuscripts lingering in the dark waters of my “to read” file.  I know there are treasures buried there just waiting to be discovered and I plan to dive deep to find them.  If what we’ve already found among our submissions is any indication of what’s still out there, I can’t wait to get my feet wet again.  Okay, enough with all the water metaphors.  The truth is, I love reading your plays and am sorry I have taken longer than expected to get back to you regarding your submissions.  Acquisitions take a lot of time.  And once we offer a contract, there is still the process of editing and formatting your play.  I’m a little afraid to announce again that we will begin accepting new submission in May, but there you go.  So, if you’re reading this, you have a heads up that we will be soliciting submissions again soon.  I’ve set the deadline for getting to the bottom of the virtual stack on my desk for May 1 and then I’ll be ready to jump back in the water with a whole new set of fins. I wouldn’t mind a moment to catch my breath before diving in again… uh, oops, sorry about that.   It’s not funny any more.  It’ snot.

I had a birthday this weekend.  We celebrated by going to a great Mediterranean restaurant in Helena.  Altricia joined us.  She is with us for the summer from Jamaica on a student work visa.  We ordered a bottle of wine.  She got carded and didn’t have her passport with her.   She was a good sport about it.  The owner came over to explain.  He seemed more concerned than she was about the situation.  Now, the cold is another story.  Altricia has barely even seen snow and here it is June and we’re in a white out!  I took her outside kicking and screaming today for some photos.  I’m kidding, of course.  She asked me to take a few of the snow and I thought it would be better with her in them.  We’ve given her sweaters and a coat to wear.  It’s not like she would have known how to prepare or even had the kind of clothing you might need in Montana.  Even I’m not prepared.  This is my first June here and I didn’t bring my winter clothes either.  I came back in May and expected maybe a week or two of less than warm weather but not snow!  Okay, I should have figured it was a possibility.  I remember my first trip to Yellowstone was on my birthday way back in the late 70’s and I saw snow then.  But only on the mountains.  I didn’t think it actually fell from the sky that late!  But as time goes on, we are reminded over and over again that there’s always something new about to fall on us.  Sometimes on our head.  Which Chicken Little discovered can lead to a pretty wild ride.  But we need an occasional knock on the head from things falling from the sky to keep us alert.  Ive been deluged with scripts the past week and I’m loving it.  I’m having some trouble keeping up with the reading- falling asleep on one or two, no offense intended.   But I’m committed to giving each one full consideration during this moment in time when we truly welcome your unsolicited scripts.  So keep them coming and I’ll do my best to stay on top of it even when I’m snowed under.

Mark and I spent 7 hours yesterday cleaning up the yard from an ice storm that struck central Kentucky in  February.  Seems a little late, I know, but I’ve been in Montana all winter and just got back east to face the mess.  And it was quite the mess, the whole town, still when I got back last Monday to host a Benefit for Kids Arts Activities.  FEMA trucks were scheduled to come through weeks ago.  Limbs and branches piled eight feet tall and half again as wide lined most of the streets.  It was like driving through a gauntlet.  I heard people describe the storm and the subsequent loss of power, for some as long as two weeks, as a “catastrophe”.  It did earn a rating of disaster and the hardest hit areas received federal emergency relief.  But Mark and I toured New Orleans three months after Katrina and in all due respect, what happened to Kentucky in comparison was an inconvenience.  Still, I admire the community for springing into action and getting the clean-up under control.  The pick-up trucks started rolling several days after I returned and by yesterday most of the walls of broken limbs had been hauled away and lawns raked clean of the remaining sticks and branches too short to stack.  Damaged roofs were repaired or replaced or in the process of replacing.  A crushed porch or swingset here or there remained, primarily to the left and back of my property where my fallen trees graced my neighbors’ yards.  But other than that, it’s almost back to normal sans a number of trees that will be sorely missed.   Whether it’s an ice storm or a hurricane or a national financial crisis, action becomes the necessary course to survival and recovery.  Nothing is accomplished by sitting back.  And although it’s neither necessary nor required nor a catastrophe or national disaster if you don’t do it, now is a great time to finish your scripts and get them in to us for consideration.  We’re looking forward to more action this spring from all you playwrights out there.  So lets get busy!

It’s easier to break into a house then into publishing.  Not that I’ve ever broken into a house.  I haven’t.  But I have broken into a car, my car, to retrieve my keys.  I have a nasty habit of locking my keys in my car when I’m absorbed in thought, such as when I’m directing a play or late for a dinner party.  I’m more often directing a play then late for a dinner party sad to say.  I missed the Inaugural party altogether I had intended on attending having been tied up for five hours at a Planning Board Meeting at City Hall.  Yeah, it was even more exciting then it sounds.  Since I was all dressed up with nowhere to go, we stopped by after at one of our favorite places in Helena, The Silver Star, often referred to as the Silver Spur.  Have you ever called something by the wrong name so many times you had trouble remembering the real name?  Or at best, which was which?   Well, that’s how it is with The Silver Star and even at this moment I want to say Silver Spur.  My guess the founding fathers couldn’t make up their minds either.  Let’s see, are we the United States of America or America, the States United?  Or how about the Silver United States of America or the United Spurs of America?  I’m rambling here, I know.  But if you’ll come along with me on one last tangent before I get back to the beginning, I do want to say how very proud I am of our country and how very happy I am that I lived to see someone break into the Whitehouse who shared my belief that no one knows it all, but that a truly intelligent person is smart enough to gather as much information from as many reliable sources as possible before making a decision.  And that hopefully that decision comes from a place of good judgement, which I must say I trust Barack Obama possesses.  That premise stated, let’s get back to the original, that it is easier to break into a house then into publishing.  The best strategy I can suggest is to act like a statesman and keep putting yourself out there.  You want your work published?  It isn’t going to happen unless you send it out.  Again and again and again.  If you’re lucky enough to get it read, and get a comment or two, listen to what is said.  At least take it into consideration.  I’ve had several plays I’ve wanted to publish but not exactly as written.  Successful playwrights and screenwriters rewrite all the time.  If you’re so married to your work that you can’t see the forest for the trees, take out your own ax and start swiping.  Save the original first, of course, because you may not like what you see when you cut the deadwood.  But, on the other hand, once you get rid of the deadwood, there might be room to plant some new seeds and see how they grow.  Take it from the top.  Barack Obama is an example of believing in yourself, persistence and a willingness to solicit and explore the ideas of others.    So, if you’re hoping to get your first play published, a little adjustment here and there in your writing might be just the wiggle room you need to break in.

With the winter solstice rising and the economy plummeting the forecast for theaters and performing arts groups looks a little bleak.  Fortunately most companies will weather the winter but a production slowdown looks imminent for spring when most theaters set season schedules for the following fall.  A royalty rollback seems ill advised, artists barely make a living as it is.   Theaters need ticket sales to survive.  It’s a two-way street between producers and audiences.  No play, no audience, so the play goes on.  But what about the audience and discretionary spending this season?  Isn’t everyone cutting back?  So, do you drop admission prices?  Maybe.  But then how do we pay our actors and directors?  Even non-professional theaters rely on ticket sales to pay the rent, cover costumes, sets, props, advertising, programs, utilities and any other wide range of expenses inherent in operating a production company.  And don’t look for a bailout.  The arts are the first to go in government and educational spending.  So, how can your theatre cut costs this season?  Start but looking for eco-friendly publishing companies using the internet to provide on-line reading of playscripts, royalty applications and downloads.  You can save a bundle on postage and professional printing and still get the majority of the money you spend on performance rights into the hands of those who deserve it most: the playwrights.  Heartland Plays is a great place to start.  Okay, so we know our playlist is small, but we’re growing.  Every successful publishing company started with a handful of scripts.  We’ll add titles as quality plays come our way.  And they are coming.  Thank you, playwrights.  But don’t wait until you’re searching through a big catalog of plays to find one that fits your audience.  One may be just the right one for you.  After all, big gifts do come in small packages.