For the 11th time, I was invited to be a writer in Overnight Sensations, an annual 24-hour play festival put on by Hollins University as part of its summer MFA program.

On Friday night, the six writers, six directors and many cast members gathered at Hollins. We had a ceremonial drawing of prompts, directors and casts from a hat, then we writers went off to write. I drew Natalie Tasillo as a director, sitcom as the genre, a county fair as the setting, “even a worm turns” as the theme and Team 4 for the cast. In the photo above, from left to right, that’s Lillian Savage, Natalie Tasillo, Miriam Frazier, Michael Johnson, me, and Janemarie Laucella kneeling. Out of the frame to the right is my old friend Stephen “Stevedogg” Glassbrenner. Photo courtesy of Dan Smith. I felt I lucked out because I normally write comedy, a rural setting is a natural for me and I knew all of the actors except Lillian. In fact, Miriam directed one of my shows in a previous Overnight Sensations, so I could hear all their voices in my head as I was writing “Cock-A-Doodle-Did.”

Here are some photos from the weekend:

Read the rest of this entry »