Happy first of August.

I’ve once again returned to the comforts of Starbucks in hopes of actually writing something this month.

And for those in the New York and Seattle areas, mark your calendars. I’ll be a-coming there and there in 2010 for Ching Chong Chinaman at here and here.

I’ll post dates and directors and details as they come.

(Yay for traveling.)

Okay, this is from July 26, but I’m going to pretend I posted it here back then…

Everything happening in July just ended, leaving me to ponder endless rewrites for the month of August.

But exciting news about Ching Chong Chinaman for 2010 coming soon…

Finally back from Scotland, several pounds heavier and several hundred ₤s lighter. But at least I finished my BAPF play like I needed to, all in the company of shortbread, afternoon tea, and the bees that would come into my writing room and inexplicably die on the windowsill.

Which means I’m now prepping for the Bay Area Playwrights Festival and the reading at Silk Road. Yay. Get your tickets here and here.

Two new items of note, if you happen to 1) be in North Carolina in July (unlikely) or 2) be at the ATHE conference in August (probably even more unlikely, unlikelier?).

1. Fallingwater at The ArtsCenter in July

I know so little about theater anywhere besides California and New York, so it’s always nice to be reminded that the arts exist somewhere else, and these folks seem. I won’t be able to randomly get out to North Carolina in the middle of July, but hey, maybe you will and you can tell me about it.  You’ll note that I pretensiously took out the space in “falling water” to make it seem more interesting than it is. It’s especially nice since it’s a short play that I wrote for Monday Night PlayGround that gets to see the light of day.

2. Jane Chambers honorable mention for CCC

Maybe it’s all the time I spent at Yale, but women in theater is an issue that always ends up being a sensitive, miffling issue for me, which is why I love the fact that the Jane Chambers playwriting contest and other stuff like it exists. So it was terribly flattering to get an honorable mention for Ching Chong Chinaman in this year’s contest. Don’t know who the other winners/finalists are, but it’s usually pretty good company.

Scotland (and relative technology isolation) in three days!

Okay, so I am literally terrible at keeping a blog and basically only write when necessity, well, necessitates.

The PlayGround reading and the BAPF table read both went well–thanks to all who came/read–though at the same time I can still see how far I have to go before I’ll actually start sending out these plays.

The real news is that I’ll actually be spending the month of June at Hawthornden Castle just outside of Edinburgh (my final writing retreat of the year), owned by Drue Heinz (of Paris Review and ketchup fame). I will once again get my food in baskets (a la MacDowell) and complain about being alone (which is what a retreat essentially is, but somehow I always end up griping about the isolation).

Legend goes that Robert the Bruce hid in the caves that the castle was built on, but for the modern reader’s reference, I’ll just say that I’ll be able to see Roslyn Chapel across the way (the church where the Da Vinci Code ended).

It’s an actual 16th century castle, which means, in addition to being cool, old, and drafty, it lacks internet and phone reception. Word has it that there’s internet at the next village over, which is about a half hour walk, so I may update some, but for the most part, I’ll be MIA until July 3.

Oh, I’m so excited, but will probably stop being so once the fog and/or ghost of William Drummond comes out at night.

Here’s a picture of the castle (ooh):

I still have to finish the ending, but in ten days, this should be all set to go:

CREVICE
a new play by Lauren Yee
directed by Mark Routhier

Sunday, May 17, 2pm
Thick House
1695 18th Street (off Arkansas Street)
San Francisco

Free admission ($10 suggested donation)
No reservations required

Unemployed, overambitious, and verging on thirty, siblings Liz and Rob vow to build themselves brighter futures. Now if they only knew what that meant. But last one night, they discover something that may just give them the direction they need to finally grow up. A comedic journey through the odyssey years.

***

The June Anne Baker Prize, established by PlayGround supporter John H. Gilman in memory of his late wife, honors the top female playwright each year, representing a gifted new comedic or political voice for the stage, and includes a full-length play commission. Lauren Yee wrote Crevice as the 2008 prize winner.

For more information: http://playground-sf.org/commissioning.shtml

***

(Sam Hurwitt has a pretty, multi-paged article on PlayGround in this month’s American Theatre, which gives a good overview of what PG’s all about and which you can read here.)

So I am actually pretty lousy at keeping a blog, but as this website was created from a WordPress blog, I’m pretty sure I can’t entirely rid myself of the blog function, so I will keep it. And it might be good to let everyone know where I am because people usually have no idea what city or state I’m in.

So there we are. Blog. Yay.