Notes from Week 9 Meeting

Last meeting of the quarter!

We discussed the stories by Sara and Matt. For Sara we suggested a number of ways in which the story could develop; for Matt we offered ideas on how to populate an unfamiliar world with fully human, fully realized characters.

We also talked about ways the group could grow, and plans for next quarter. We'd like to bring in a speaker, and go to various festivals in the spring. If you have any ideas, please post them! It would also be good to do something with FOTA, even in a tiny capacity. We should get involved with the English Department and Committee on Creative Writing, too. Would anybody like to be the liaison between us and those departments?

There was no prompt assigned, but I'll get one up as soon as I can. If anybody has ideas on a good technique to practice, let me know. Catalina suggested writing something from the point of view of a character with some kind of mental limitation, like being high or feverish. This could become a stream-of-consciousness narrative. If this appeals to you, go ahead and rock it!

Best of luck with finals, and have a great break.

Submission Opportunity

I know that most of us are oriented around the short story/novel, but if you're at all interested in theatre (or film, performance art, whathaveyou) and want to be involved in this, there's still time to submit something for UT's New Work Week. Basically, UT devotes a weekend of performances to staged readings of student written or devised work. Note the exciting bit about half way down - what you submit doesn't have to be finished. This tends to be a pretty neat experience, so if you've ever dreamed of seeing your writing staged, or have a play or screenplay stashed under your bed, this is a great chance to dust it off.

The deadline is close, but I literally just remembered this yesterday. E-mail me if you want the submission form.
Cheers
Lisbeth
--

Spring Quarter 2008

New Work Week
4th Week

University Theater is seeking submissions of new work including:

Stage Plays
Screen Plays
Situational Comedy
Poetry
Fiction
Musical Compositions
Dance
Performance Art

Work does not have to be in finished state for submission, and
portions of work can be staged.

We are interested in showcasing and developing the immense
range of creative talent at the University with small time
commitment.  Writers/Performers would work collaboratively
with matched directors, with brief initial meetings beginning
at the end of this quarter.  Rehearsals would range from 1-3
meetings over the first 3 weeks of Spring Quarter.

New Work Submissions:
Submission Requirements: 2 copies of work, contact
information, and what stage you are in the process (# of
drafts, prior readings, stagings or concerts)

Directors:
Those interested in working with writers/performers, please
submit a short paragraph detailing current interest and/or
prior experience as well as current contact information.
Directors are matched with playwrights and all will be
notified at the same time.  New Work Week will audition with
all UT shows during first week of Spring Quarter.

Deadline Friday, Feb 22 by 5pm
Reynolds Club #301

Notification of selection: March 7th
For more information, please contact Heidi Coleman
(coleman@uchicago.edu).
Heidi Coleman
Director, University Theater
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Theater and Performance Studies

new prompt

The prompt for our next meeting:

Write a scene whose forward movement is propelled by a character’s belief in something: a tale such as the one in Alice Hoffman’s White Horses, a religion, astrology, the I Ching, winning the lottery, etc.

FYI

(Am I allowed to post to this thing? Well, here goes. I guess if I'm not, Raisa will block me or something.)

I'm not sure I'm going to be able to make it to this week's meeting, and my response to the prompt has wandered off somewhere else anyway and I don't have quite the time to get it back on track. But I have realized that my google mail account gets me registered here, so I'm taking advantage of that and starting a personal blog where I'll be dumping all the writing that, for whatever reason, doesn't get workshopped.

In other words, things will be available on my other account and if you're
a) bored
b) a glutton for punishment
c) a compulsive editor
d) a blog addict
e) all of the above
you should feel free to wander over and read whatever I've got up there (and if you're c, leave a comment, s'il vous plait).

OK. Over and out.

Fifth-Week In-Meeting Prompt

Here's the prompt we worked on fifth week:

"You've just received bad news. Show your reaction to the news by describing your surroundings with concrete details. One object in particular catches your attention, and reminds you of a memory. Describe this memory concretely. When you emerge from the memory, your experience colors the way you interact with the object you noticed earlier, as well as letting you deal with the news in a different way. Describe emerging from the memory and reacting to the news, again choosing concrete details."

Sorry this was late guys. Hope you enjoy!
(remember you're always free to workshop pieces that are entirely unrelated to the prompts- the prompts are just there to give the creative juices a buzz).

5th-week meeting

Yo kids,

A meeting went down tonight! If you missed it, here's the deal:

+ We responded to a prompt RIGHT THEN AND THERE. The content of the prompt will be posted tomorrow. This prompt, in addition to the prompt from last week (describe the same event from different perspectives), will be discussed in the meeting in two weeks.

+ Changes to the structure of WIP!

- meetings will now be Tuesdays at 7, every other week
- stay posted for a location, soon to be made permanent (and on campus!)
- three/four people will be workshopped at each meeting
- submit your work by Sunday at 8 p.m. before the meeting, if not earlier
- we are now an RSO, but I think this is the twelfth time I've said this

+ Daniel, Catalina, and Matt will be submitting pieces for the workshop in two weeks. If you would like to be the fourth submitter, let me know.

Meeting specifics

A few people have told me that Tuesdays are inconvenient for meetings. However, others have said that Mondays are equally bad. I'm only free on Mondays and Tuesdays, so half of us will have to be slighted.

What are your thoughts on this? Should we alternate between Mondays and Tuesdays? Or should we break into smaller sections, with half of us meeting on M and the other meeting on Tue? Would someone be willing to lead a smaller section, if it meant that you could attend a meeting after all?

As always, e-mail me with suggestions. And as it stands, next week's meeting will be on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Stay tuned for location details.