The Power of Play
how to meet this moment with joy
I am not saying everything’s honkey-dorey. I am saying that we will all, each of us, be more powerful and more effective, if we can actually find ways to play and create and live in our joy.
Making art is more important than ever. And I don’t mean art that is political, although you all know how political my art tends to be. I mean hands in the dirt gardening, I mean piano arpeggios, I mean paint and paper and pens and language like lollipops worthy of licking our lips for. How else are we going to get our minds to come up with the new solutions to the corners we’re in?
Everyone is creative! Let’s stop hoarding and hiding our creativity and start sharing it with each other. Your darkest expressions of pain are going to help someone else find their light. Don’t be selfish. Don’t be vain. Do your thing.
Living in a world that only seems to want to shut us down (and replace us with machines) means it is more important than ever to start making something, anything, that comes from your own impulse by your own agency with your own hands.
Don’t believe the lies! You have agency! You can do this! And you can have fun doing it! And it is healing and essential for life!
PROMPT:
Writing one-minute plays (1MPs) are great exercises to improve our playwriting skills. These bite-sized moments are also a great way to expand your circle of collaborators as a kind of calling card. They are quick, and once you start, I betcha can’t make just one! They are super-fun!
Take the basic elements for the linear model of storytelling: STASIS > CONFLICT > RISING ACTION > CLIMAX > RECOGNITION > TRANSFORMATION > STASIS
Put it to work for you line by line.
STASIS: this is how we (2 characters) always are with each other: Wanna get a smoothie? I dunno. Fro-yo?
CONFLICT: then something happens, the wrench that guts us, the stranger walks by and you stare and I say, oh, you like that, huh? And you’re like, I can’t look? I’m just looking. You looked too, and I’m not accusing you of anything!
RISING ACTION: Like you didn’t look at Adelaide in Shipping? And then you go, are you still upset about that? That was years ago!
CLIMAX: I’m leaving. I’m so done with this.
RECOGNITION: Whoa, wait a minute. Don’t you realize that I wouldn’t be here if you weren’t my coffee in the morning and my ambien at night? Don’t you think I’d just go off if I wanted to especially since I did and learned how much I hurt you. I made it up, I thought we made it up, didn’t we? (Well…) I love you, only you.
TRANSFORMATION: I soften. We embrace.
STASIS: (Okay, this is a new stasis now) the way we are now… Wanna get a smoothie?
THE END
Now you try. It need not be worthy of a prize, but it helps us to consider the elements and exercise our ability to use them, and it can be a lot of weird and wacky fun. Throw in a reversal, an aside, some physical comedy… Try using non-human characters, weather, pets, political systems! Make some great change in the world. Recognize some truths. Share your work.
Above My Head by Scott Sherman at ScottShermanStudio on Instagram
Neuro-Affirming Parts Work Group!
Since we presented our approach to neuro-affirming parts work at a recent conference, there was so much interest that my colleague Jess Pearce and I (both Audhd) are putting together a Neuro-Affirming (NAF) Parts Work Group. We’ll start Saturday May 10th at 12pm ET (time zone converter link) and continue monthly every Second Saturday. Sign up here!
We're offering a 90 minute session where we'll check in, offer an experiential exercise, discussion and support through a neurodivergent lens. Drop-ins encouraged.
NAF Parts Work will be pay-what-you-can (suggested $5 - 25/session) but we will not turn people away if they are unable to pay.
If you are neurodivergent or neurodivergent-curious and want support working with your parts, let me know, and I will add you to the group for updates and links.
Amazing People Doing Amazing Things:
If you want to be listed here, please let me know what you’re up to and include your links!
For example, I’m pleased to announce that Ghost City Press has selected my micro-chapbook, “Possible Paths for the Minotaur,” as part of their Micro-chapbook Summer Series. It will be published online some time this summer with proceeds going to the Transgender Law Center.
3/28 - 4/26 Emma Horwitz and Bailey Williams are in Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods (they wrote it and star in it) at Here! Click for tickets.
Shoshanna Gleich is the Cat in the Hat in SEUSSICAL at Art/NY 5/8-18 Tickets Here!
Audrey Cephaly has written a great Substack on How to Write the 10 Minute Play - I highly recommend her Substack every day, and especially this one.
Take a Poetry Workshop with Only Poems.
Playwrights! If you’re not already subscribed to Mark Ravenhill’s free newsletter for his 101 exercises for playwrights, you might want to click here to do that. If you’ve missed them, reach out and I’ll send you a pdf of the 1st 53, and a pdf of 54 - now. So you won’t have to search through the endless Twitter-verse for random entries.
Opportunities:
Ixion is seeking up to 8 scripts where DEFIANCE figures prominently to be considered for further development, including staged readings and possibly full production in June of 2026. No more than 4 actors. Simple setting. No more than 12 pages. Include only first initial and last name of author. Put script name and your last name in header or footer. Multiple subs allowed. No bios. Send to ixionensemble@gmail.com by 5 p.m. 9/30/25. Defiance can be in any form or any situation to explore relationships, dynamics and moments where opposition comes into play, could take on the relationship between a parent and child, and individual versus a collective or even a people versus an entity.
Breath of Fire is offering free evenings online to write your play with the amazing Diana Burbano on Wednesdays 630 - 830pm PST. Diana is the Artistic Literary Leader of Breath of Fire, an award-winning playwright, Equity Actor and Teaching Artist for South Coast Rep. From 2/26 - 10/22/25.
Telephone seeks all kinds of creative folks from everywhere in the world to respond to other artists/poets/dancers/etc to create a global community of responses. It is a massively brilliant project (I contributed to), and they want all kinds of creatives involved especially outside the US. Check out what they are doing and reach out!
Women in the Arts & Media have a list of opps you can sign up to get monthly.
For poets looking for UK opps, Angela T. Carr’s Wordbox has monthly opps & more!
Brave Space
With prompts, grounding practices, & discussions, Brave Space invites playwrights, poets, painters, potters, novelists, memoirists, musicians & artists working in any medium to make meaning in a safe community. Begin and/or bring your projects to completion. Or use Brave Space as a body-doubling space to get other things done in community. $5-25 suggested per session. 4+x/week! On or off camera. No commitment, drop-ins welcome. Try it!
The Brave Space Schedule:
Mondays & Wednesdays at 12pm ET; Fridays at 12pm ET w/fast feedback; and Sundays at 6pm ET with Sharing Second Sundays at 730pm ET (that means this Sunday May 11th!!!) Email or reply below for a link!
Congrats on your micro-chapbook Emma! I'm excited to read it.
Very exciting!!!