An Introduction

Hello!

My name is Bonnie.  I am an actor (mostly early modern plays with some musical theatre thrown in, just to shake things up).  I recently earned my M.F.A. in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin College, in association with the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, Virginia.  Last January as a graduate student at Mary Baldwin, I had the good fortune of taking a Playwriting class with Professor Todd Ristau, head of the Graduate Playwriting Program at Hollins University.  I had never taken a playwriting class or written a play before.  In fact, the last (and only) Creative Writing class I had ever taken was during my sophomore year in high school.  I thought that Playwriting would be a fun elective to take with a professor I knew from my undergraduate days.

It is not an exaggeration to say that this class changed my life.  Up until that class, I would have never thought of myself as a writer, let alone a writer of plays.  That was something "other people" did.  But I soon realized that writing plays was not only fun but something I was strangely good at.  Apparently, years of talking to yourself (and other people) in your head allows you to write pretty good dialogue.  Who knew? ;)

I have been searching for a creative project for some time now.  Something that I could devote myself to, in an attempt to distract myself from the often frustrating travails of being (or wanting to be) a working theatre professional.  Over the holidays, I hit upon it.  The perfect project.  I would write a ten minute play once a week for the entire year.  52 weeks.  52 plays.  This blog will chronicle the project.  I hope to share with you all the frustrations, the joys, and the inspirations behind these 52 plays.  I have set myself a "due date" of 10 p.m. EST each Sunday for each week's play.  So, wish me luck!