New play development, collaboration
Stacey Isom Campbell
SEWANEE: TWO WEEKS ON THE MOUNTAIN

There are conferences, and then there are experiences that recalibrate something in you. Sewanee has been the latter. I arrived with a first draft and a lot of questions. I'm leaving with a stronger play, a clearer sense of direction, and writers I hope to know for the rest of my life. More in the blog — via the link. Thanks to the Metropolitan Arts Council of Greenville for making this possible. #playwright #SewaneeWritersConference #newplay #TheLongestWalk

Stacey Isom Campbell
Home from Lenox: The World Premiere of 1999 at ...

Bringing 1999 to the stage at WAM Theatre was a dream realized—a collision of art, community, and vulnerability. What began in solitude became something shared, alive, and beautifully out of my control.

Home from Lenox: The World Premiere of 1999 at WAM Theatre
collaboration, New play development
Stacey Isom Campbell
Back to Earth After the Dream: Modern Works ...

After a dream week at the Modern Works Festival in Sarasota, I’ve finally landed back on earth—grateful, inspired, and still replaying every moment.

Back to Earth After the Dream: Modern Works Festival
New play development
Stacey Isom Campbell
1999 goes to Florida Rep!

Florida Rep New Works Festival

I’m SO pleased to announce my play, 1999, has been selected for Florida Rep’s PlayLab Festival of New Works! I’m going to Fort Myers, Florida for a week to rehearse, revise, and see a professional reading of the play, as well as be introduced to the other new plays and playwrights! I can’t wait! It’s all happening frighteningly (and exhilaratingly) fast.

collaboration
Stacey Isom Campbell
The Gift of Collaboration

For my 50th birthday, my friend and long-time collaborator Lisa Neely, brought me to Austin to do a workshop and reading of my new play 1999 with her company 3rd Course: Theatre. Collaboration with friends was the best she could’ve given. MAC Arts also supported our endeavor with a generous grant which helped provide a budget for food, copies, and dramaturgical support. We’re so lucky in Greenville to have a thriving arts community, in large part because of MAC Arts’ generous funding.

The Gift of Collaboration

Kenyon Playwrights Institute

Kenyon Playwrights Institute

In June, I had the opportunity to visit Gambier, Ohio, where I spent a week at the Kenyon Institute. I was really excited and nervous for the opportunity to be a student again. I knew my students would get some perverse pleasure from the idea that I had homework and deadlines and all the things they face. 

Despite the intense schedule and homework, I was reminded by how privileged we are when we have the opportunity to be a student, especially when we get to learn from great teachers. So, I really wanted to soak up everything.

Paper Lanterns Getting Produced in NC

One of my new 10-minute plays, Paper Lanterns, is getting a production in late August! I submitted it to this festival at the Old Courthouse Theatre near Charlotte, NC. It's one of 6 plays getting produced. I'm excited to connect with another theatre and always super thrilled to see something that's been living in my head embodied on stage! 

The cool thing is it's a play that came from the writing prompts on this blog.

Weekend Writing Prompt -- June

A blog entry is forthcoming about my experience at Kenyon, but I need more time to let the ideas marinate. Almost as soon as I got back home, I dove into my current play and am up to my eyeballs in heavy revision. I'm so excited by the progress, but I just haven't been able to pull myself away to write about the experience. But I will!

Instead, I've decided to post a writing prompt. I've heard from some of you on Facebook, and it seems you're hungry for writing prompts. 

Redefining Success

I've always believed that a writer's success should be found in the act of writing rather than external validation. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with validation, but I have tried to find success in things that I have some control over: am I writing nearly every day and am I getting better in the craft from year to year? The first one requires some kind of writing discipline and process; the second one has to do with pushing myself to try new forms, new ideas, or new themes -- constantly challenging myself to exceed my grasp. 

I think for the most part this approach works for me. I practice it and I teach it to my students. But lately, I've been questioning this paradigm as the way in which I measure my success as a writer. What about those seasons in life when writing isn't possible? The time or the emotional energy just isn't there?

Weekend Writing Prompt - May

April was a crazy month -- the ending of a very busy semester, producing Fringe Fest, teaching 13 students in Practicum, etc.  So, I didn't get a writing prompt posted.  

But the monthly writing prompts have helped me devote one weekend a month to write something new, rather than spend all my time revising plays.  It's also had the unintended benefit of getting me to generate short plays.  My ideas are almost always for full-length plays, so it's been fun to explore the 10-minute variety.  

Reading at Writer's Festival '16

I had the opportunity to read from an excerpt of my play, On the 8’s, this week with some fabulous actors.  As a reading, some of the comic potential of staging wasn’t there.  But it was still fun to hear it and watch it become embodied by a new cast.  And these actors were such pros, finding so many great moments, even behind music stands.  

It reminds me again of why I do theatre – theatre people are so much fun and full of energy.  I think it was Madeline George who described a playwright as a poet who got lonely.  I agree!  Sometimes my motivation for writing plays boils down to creating an excuse to hang out with these people.  It's as valid a reason as any.