Sunday Salon--The Tuesday Version--March 2

Sunday afternoon the big guy and I headed off to usher with my parents at their local community playhouse. It's something we've been doing for many years, something that my kids have also all helped with. We're all big fans of the theater. My dad used to direct plays when he was a teacher, I started going to the high school musicals when I was just a little girl, and all of us have seen Broadway productions. So when my oldest and Mini-me began acting in school plays, my parents and I were all thrilled. Recently Mini-me was inducted into the International Thespian Society, an organization my oldest was inducted into three years ago.

(Mini-him, my dad, and Mini-me at Mini-me's induction)

One of the members of my book club is a playwright. Last month I enjoyed getting to talk to her about the process of writing a play. It's so much different that writing a novel. She tells me that 100 pages is the average for a play so in terms of length, it's more like writing a short story. Except all of the description of the setting has to be done at the beginning of the story and all of the action is written as instruction to the actors. And a entire story has to be told keeping in mind the confines of limited characters and space and a limited ability to create scenes.

My friend, the playwright, also dedicated February to reading a play a day. I've read very few plays...some Shakespeare, the scripts for the mini-plays that my friends and I used to put on in grade school. I've always found all of those instructions very distracting when I'm reading a play. But my friend can read them and really get the feeling they are meant to convey. So this month, when I see her, I'm picking her brain on exactly how she does that. Then I'm going to give play reading another try. How about you--do you read plays?

A month or so ago, I think I mentioned that I was going out early one morning to take pictures of the frost caused by all of the moisture and cold air we had. Here are a couple of the shots I got. Can I just tell you how happy I am that it doesn't look like this around here any more?!

Finally, I'm very embarrassed to say that I completely forgot to announce the winner of a copy of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. My mind has been going too many different directions of late, I guess. Congratulations to Stephanie of Misfit Salon!