I had arguably my most successful day as a playwright at the end of February, when I had two plays accepted into play contests in one day: "Admission Impossible" got into Cone Man Running Productions' "Five-Minute Mile" in Houston, and "Altar Ego" at Rover Dramawerks in Plano. I hoisted a sixer of Shiner Bock in celebration. Then a few days later "Altar Ego," which is about a wedding ruined by the brother of the groom, also got into a festival put on by Stage Door Productions in Virginia. And then a few days after that my play "Nemeses" was accepted by the Valdez Last Frontier Theater Conference, which I have attended for many many years but gets more selective every year, so it's still always an honor to get in.
But here's the problem: these events were scheduled to take place in May-June, July-August, April, and June 2020, respectively. And as I write this, of course, we're in the midst of a pandemic that's pretty much going to cancel/postpone everything from now until, well, God only knows. The Theater Conference is already cancelled and all of the other productions are postponed indefinitely. Which brings up the question...can I still put them all on my resume?
I'm bummed, but in the grand scheme of things none of this is a big deal (it helps that I have a stable day job I can do remotely.) The biggest disappointment by far is the Valdez conference getting canned, as that has been a staple of my summer for more than a decade. I guess it frees up a week in June for outdoor adventures, but given the option, I'd rather be enjoying the one week a year I get to spend immersed in the theater world. Again: boo-hoo.
So, COVID FTL. Can you say FTL? Is that a thing?