HOW TO LOSE FIVE POUNDS IN THREE DAYS
By Monica Wood One month and five revisions later, I hired six of my favorite local actors to come to my house for round two: wine, pizza, reading. And yes, I was nervous. These were people I’d admired...
View ArticleFALLING OFF MY CHAIR
By Monica Wood Now I know what it means. Because when Anita Stewart, artistic and executive director of Portland Stage, told me she wanted to stage Papermaker as the closing show of the 2014-15 season,...
View ArticleTHE BIG HUGE GINORMOUS FESTIVAL OF THE UNEXPECTED
By Monica Wood Now we fast-forward to May 2014. Papermaker is one of three featured works-in-progress at Portland Stage Company’s annual weeklong playwriting workshop called “Little Festival of the...
View ArticleA NEW YORK STATE OF MIGRAINE
By Monica Wood By the time the Friday casting call arrives, I’ve been New York for three days, having a ball. My best childhood friend Denise took a train up from D.C. to join me for the day on...
View ArticleFearless: The Little Festival of the Unexpected
By Tom Coash A veil. A scarf. A simple piece of cloth. In Arabic, hijab…abaya…burka. To western eyes, often a sign of the suppression of women’s rights. A sign of danger to our security and way of...
View ArticleFAMILY TIME
By Monica Wood Entering the final week of rehearsal, we’ve wrangled with nearly every page of the play, which is becoming something so far beyond its words. My script has ballooned in size,...
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