By B. Alksninis
Six students from Celebration Lifelong’s spring 2019 Write a Ten-Minute Play Workshop presented their finished works to an appreciative audience on Tuesday, April 23. The readings took place during Lifelong’s Tuesday Lecture Series. First-time playwrights Margaret Cancalon and Eileen Crawford wowed the crowd with their works, as did veteran students Don Salvo, Nancy Rose Ostinato, Diane Finney and Meryl Rachlin.
“Ten-minute play writing is a process,” William Newkirk, the workshop instructor, explained. A play may begin with one concept and morph to something completely new over the course of six weeks. The playwrights also credit the feedback they get from their fellow students as a key to their confidence and success.
Celebration playwright Lori Lemieux’s ten-minute play, Buckle Up, which was written during Lifelong’s fall 2018 term, has just been published in Stage It! 3: 20 Ten-Minute Plays, which is an anthology of the twenty best plays of 2018 from the United States, Australia, Canada, England, Greece, India, New Zealand, and Sweden. It is a remarkable achievement and the third time a Lifelong playwright has been so honored. Don Salvo’s Naked Player and Nancy Rose Ostinato’s My Dream Husband were honored in 2017.
If you would like to participate in future playwriting workshops or learn more about the variety of courses that are offered through Celebration Lifelong, check out our website, www.CelebrationLifelong.org, or send an email to Lifelong@CelebrationFoundation.org if you wish to be added to the mailing list.
The above article appears in the June 2019 edition of the Celebration News