Back to the Drawing Board

It's been nearly a year since I've written here.
Why?  I've got a lot of "reasons":
1) I created (and then lost) a new website, and was starting to populate it with blog entries.  Trust me, whatever I wrote was BRILLIANT
2) I keep class blogs with my students, and working with students allows me a lot of opportunities to get my thoughts out (hurray, captive audience)
3) I was soooo busy with teaching, planning a wedding, and applying for every possible opportunity
4) I was soooo busy working on screenplays/tv pilot proposals/

...and of course, all those things are true, but they're also kinda bullshit.  Mostly, I just stopped taking the time to sit down and process "learning moments" when I had them...maybe told myself I wasn't having them as often, since I'm not in graduate school where the question of "what are you learning" sits right on the surface.

Which, of course, is also bullshit.  Because anyone can probably tell you what they're learning in grad school -- we've got professors who, for the most part, are exposing us to lessons in identifiable, digestible (hopefully not pre-digested) pieces.  The real challenge is to seek out lessons when no one's pointing a neon sign at 'em.  Which is what, I realize, I need to remember to do.

Why am I coming back now?
1) There are times when you need to re-commit to your own process, and to the idea that craft IS a process.  This is "rejection season," and most of my friends and I are buying each other beers right now, licking our wounds, trying to stay optimistic.  After some bad nights of sleep, I know I need to return to the well.  And  blogging, for me, is a way to commit to that.
2) While I sometimes write about screenwriting here, this place is called PLAYWRIGHTSnotebook.  I haven't written a new full-length in a year and a half.  That scares me.  Writers write.  Playwrights write plays.
3) Um, actually, I HAVE been learning things while I've been off "not blogging."  And I wanna write 'em down before I forget 'em
4) A friend of mine just asked me to help him with his writing.  An acquaintance asked me to be a "guest blogger" on his writing blog.  Uh, maybe I should be writing on my own blog before I skip over to someone else's.

So, over the next couple of weeks, I promise (myself) to write about the following:
1) Richard III vs 'Tis A Pity She's a Whore @ BAM
2) Hand to God @ EST
3) Death of a Salesman on Broadway
4) My "Adaptation" class, and the art of adaptation
5) Lost Angeles
6) Why I'm Terrified to Write This Next Play
7) Nose to Glass
8) What I'm Learning About Dragons
9) Collaborating with my Sweetheart
10) Being In The Room
11) Taking a Leap (quitting my job)