It's official. I got the fever… I got the fever bad. I'm referring of course to SF Theater Pub‘s Saturday Write Fever. Last night was their second event and it was every bit as good as the first one was. I think it's destined to become a staple in the indie theatre scene. This is how it works… It's the third Saturday of the month, you show up at the Exit at 8:30pm and sign up to either be an actor, writer, or both. From 8:30 to 9 you mingle and get to know all the fabulous artists that came out and then at 9, if you're a writer, they draw your name to pick the order of the monologues and you get your prompt! Writers then have 30 minutes to write a one page monologue. And the pressure to write with that time is pretty incredible, let me tell you… Anyhow, at 9:30 they pair up the first half of writers with actors and after 5 minutes the shows starts. We get to hear all these brand new pieces performed practically cold and it is a hoot.
Last night, the highlight for me, was seeing Tracy Held Potter preform a piece that had the prompt: “Watch out for snakes day.” The monologue, and her performance of it was so hilarious, I cried from laughing… And I am pretty sure that everyone else stuffed into the Exit Cafe was crying from laughing too hard as well. It was incredible. The writer behind the snakes is Spencer Bainbridge, someone I did not know and that now is someone I will watch out for!
It's always an amazing feeling when you get together with other talented people and make something with them that is better than anything you could have done alone. I think that's a big part of why I'm in theatre, the community of it. Saturday Write Fever brings a mass of people together late on Saturday night, and they put together something that is bigger and better than any of us could have done alone. It is an incredible event, and I hope it sticks around. The people responsible for Saturday Write Fever are Stuart Bousel and Megan Cohen, two heavy hitters in the indie theatre scene here.
The next Saturday Write Fever is May 18th. Mark your calendars!