Theatre Arts Archives - Page 5 of 9 - Trisha Sugarek, Author, Playwright & Poet

New Look! New Tips! Creative Writing for Women Journal

‘From how ideas begin to how they are nurtured and written down, there to be refined until they see the light of day, this journal offers support, insight, and ideas for jump-starting the creative process.’ ~~Midwest Book Review

Journals/Handbooks for women with more instruction and quotes. For new and experienced writers alike, this Journal offers more instruction,tips and more hand-picked quotes by other authors, actors, playwrights, philosophers, and poets. Meant to inspire the creative mind. A handy size that will fit in a backpack or tote.

‘Sugarek gives you “permission” to scribble down ideas and not have to write the great American novel every time you put pen to paper. In the first couple of pages, she gets you going with examples and encouragement and she makes you realize that while writing is work, it’s not impossible work.’ D. Johnson

WHAT TO EXPECT:
How To Begin
How To Develop Exciting Characters
How To Tell A Story
How To Write a Stage Play
How To Write Poetry
How To Write Haiku Poetry

To purchase: click here
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? September: Dylan Callens. October’s author was Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. In December we will be saying hello to English mystery writer, J.G. Dow.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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To purchase

Just Published! I WANNA BE a WRITER, Journal and Handbook

‘A stunning new journal with more instruction and extra tips about writing fiction, stage plays, and poetry.’ Midwest Book Review

The newest in a series of Journals/Handbooks. For new and experienced writers alike, this Journal offers more instruction,
tips and more hand-picked quotes by other authors, actors, playwrights, philosophers, and poets. Meant to inspire the creative mind. A handy size that will fit in a backpack or tote.

WHAT TO EXPECT:
How To Begin
How To Develop Exciting Characters
How To Tell A Story
How To Write a Stage Play
How To Write Poetry
How To Write Haiku Poetry

To purchase: click here
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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? September: Dylan Callens. October’s author was Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm. In December we will be saying hello to English mystery writer, J.G. Dow.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my
On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
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To Purchase

‘No Means No!’ New short play for the Classroom by Trisha Sugarek

Available now! The latest short play in the playwright’s ShortN’Small series.
“G” rated for teens and the classroom.

Those who follow me and all my friends in theatre know that I have added to the
ShortN’Small short play series for years now. ‘G’ rated 10 minute plays that focus on issues impacting the teens of today.
Ranging from divorce to cutting, from running away to drug use, from date violence to bullying.

Synopsis: Emilee has reached the age where boys are pressuring her into sexual activities that she is not ready for.
In this ‘G’ rated, short play for the classroom we explore the peer pressure that comes to bear as young girls
try to navigate their teen years.

Emilee is torn between what her friends are doing and what she instinctively knows is not right for
her at this stage in her life. 1m. 5f.

No props, no sets, no costumes, just open dialogue!

To purchase click here

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? September: Dylan Callens. October’s author is Donna Kauffman. In November we say hello to Rita Avaud a Najm.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!
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To Purchase

Ten Minutes to Curtain! Vol. I ~~ Bigger and Better

I published these volumes beginning in 2009 and they are very popular with teachers, directors, and drama departments. It was time now to add new plays to this volume. Retaining the tried and true, popular short plays, I have added many that I have written since 2009.

Fifteen 10 minutes plays in one volume. A variety of real life issues that teens face today with a couple of fun, silly ones just because. Teachers tell me that often doing the play, the students open up about their challenges each day.

Contents:

The Bullies…………………………………………..9
Boys at school bully a kid different from them-
selves. 4m
Pan of Potatoes………………………………………………21
A sassy little tale about greed and a pan of
potatoes.   5f
The Run-Away…………………………….…….31
Running away is not the solution to a teen’s problems
and can be very dangerous. 3f 1m
The ‘D’ Word……………………………………………….45
Two teens face the fact that their parents
are divorcing. 2f, 2m
The Postcard…………………………………………………57
The mother of the bride receives a postcard from
the daughter that she gave up for adoption
twenty years ago. How does a devoted
mother tell her child, about a sister she never
knew about. 2f, 1m
Cyber-Hate…………………………………..…..65
Bullying has reached sophisticated levels, sometimes
ending in tragic situations. 4f 1m
The Art of Murder………………………………81
A reclusive artist watches his neighbor and paints
her over and over until she ends up dead. 2m 1f
Song of the Yukon …………….………………….95
A teenager is inspired by the poetry of Robert
Service and strikes out for Alaska. 3f, 1m
You’re Not the Boss of Me…………………….105
The journey of decision making as a
teenager grows up. 3f
Love Doesn’t Leave Bruises…………………………115
Violence among teens dating is nationally on the
rise and is becoming a genuine concern among
parents and educators. How one family deals with
it. 2f, 1m
The Waltz……………………………………………………127
Falling in love during their first waltz until her
underpants fall down around her ankles. 1f, 1m
Trans-G Kid…………………………………….133
Trapped in the wrong body a teen tries to find a
way out. 3f 1m
Trans-G Parents……………………………………147
A support group for parents trying to understand
and support their transgender child. 6f 5m
The Perfume Bottle……………………………………………157
Two youngsters leave a perfume bottle for
the mean old lady next door. Is it perfume or a
far more lethal smell?   3f
Ivah the Terrible……………………………………………….163
A rich client visits the house at dinner time while
the wife hides in the kitchen; but does she stay
there?   1f, 3m

I hope you enjoy these plays. More importantly I hope that your student/actors are inspired to navigate the troubled waters in their lives with good sense and wisdom.
Remember, when the plays are used in a classroom environment they are royalty-free!!

Available at www.amazon.com and other fine book stores.

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? June: Mehreen Ahmed. July: Janet Macleod Trotter, author of Tea Planter’s Daughter and in August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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Motivational Moments…for Writers! #31

You’re a Writer. You just received a critique. Constructive criticism. What Do You Do Next?

What you DON’T DO is answer back in the heat of the moment! If you contact the critic at all, you write a ‘thank you’ note and say how much you appreciated their time. Your job, now, is to be gracious, polite and calm. Even though inside you are seething. How dare they criticize your writing? Don’t they know you have sweated blood and tears over this manuscript? What do they know anyway?

I read and review books, for authors, all the time on my Blog. One time I was reviewing the book of a relatively new author. She had a good story.
She had first hand experience with her setting (the high country in Montana) but her characters needed massive fleshing out. Her knowledge of crime scene investigation was lacking and therefore she had made some serious mistakes in the forensics area of her story. Instead of taking my critique in the spirit of what was given, she wrote me a blistering email in response. When what she should have done was go back and looked at her work, to see if any of my comments had any value. She missed an opportunity to make her writing better.

Yes, I have felt the sting of the critique….many times. And you know what? After my hurt feelings calmed down, after my initial anger that my ‘writing was being attacked’ had abated, I saw that the critic had some valid points. That if I went back and applied the critique to my work I ended up with better writing and a better story. In the end I was grateful to the critic!

“I critique myself way harder than anybody else could critique me.” ~~ Wiz Khalifa

“I’ve always loved brainstorming with other writers, and I consider having my work critiqued a part of that brainstorming.” ~~ Jay Asher

“My most profound growth as a writer came when I joined an online critique group. What a harrowing, terrifying, wonderful experience that was.” ~~ Rae Carson

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? Johan Thompson (South African author) joined us in April. June: Mehreen Ahmed. July: Janet Macleod Trotter, author of Tea Planter’s Daughter and in August we say ‘hello’ to Cheryl Hollon.

Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

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New Short Play, Trans-G Parents

Book #30 in the ShortN’Small Series of short, one act plays. The Trans-G Parents

A look into the world of the parents who are trying to do the right thing…support their child….love their child…sometimes
even save their life. Their child is confused and frightened by their physical being telling them they are one gender
while their heart, soul and mind are telling them that they are another.

This short play’s setting is a support group for parents. Resigned, angry, confused, religious, experienced and lost,
they come together out of a common desperation. Some handling the situation much better than others.

The script offers an insightful and educational dialogue from parents. There is no manual on parenting much
less facing the challenges of this gender affirmation generation. 6f. 5m.

TS. This seemed like a natural sequel to the Trans-G Kid, another short play by this playwright. Inspired by the television documentary, The Gender Revolution.

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MY BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! Did you miss the past few months? December: Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. January was Dinah Jefferies and February’s author is Sheryl Steines. Johan Thompson (South African author) will join us in March.
Check out more Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

The Birth: ‘Scent of Magnolia’, a Tribute to Billie Holiday

It all started when a jazz singer/actress asked me to write a one-woman show for her; portraying the life and music of Billie Holiday. At the time she had a three piece band and they played small jazz clubs in Chicago. She had just finished acting in a showcase that I had produced (Women Outside the Walls) and was on her way back to the windy city.

I laughed. Why would she want a middle-aged, white Irish woman to write a play for her showcase of an iconic African-American woman? She replied, “you got inside the heads of the women in this play you wrote. You’ve never been in prison or been married to a convict. But you were able to make us feel empathy for these forgotten wives and families.”

I said I’d think about it and started researching Billie Holiday’s life. Sure, I’d seen “Lady Sings the Blues” but felt certain that there was more to the story than a song-bird who OD’d on hard drugs. I discovered the story of a fearless woman who rose above poverty, rape, bigotry, prostitution and imprisonment to become one of the most memorable and celebrated artists of the twentieth century.

The resulting one-woman show was not only Billie’s story, but the nation’s story. In her own words, she talks about her struggle to succeed in spite of the segregation of that time and the difficulties she experienced singing with the great bands, most of which were white men. Without pity for herself, she talks about the daily slings and arrows which are a part of bigotry. She took complete responsibility for her life, her choices, and her actions. Her triumph was her music and her songs that will live on forever. The script does not dwell on the sensationalism of her addiction to alcohol and drugs but chooses, rather, to celebrate the whole woman.

You might wonder about the title. After all Billie was known for her white gardenias. I chose Scent of Magnolia from the lyrics of Strange Fruit.
‘Pastoral scene of the gallant south
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh…..’

Original music by composer/song writer: Gary Swindell PRESS play
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My BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! November was best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series. Coming up, January: Dinah Jefferies.

Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

Best Idea Ever!

This was one of my better ideas and it grew into book sales.

I met with a group of teachers a few years back and they were bemoaning the fact that their arts budget was non-existent. Everything they did in the classroom, with regard to visual arts or theatre arts, was ‘out of pocket’ for them. So I went away thinking, ‘I should create 10 minute plays for the classroom, no costumes, no sets, no props, and inexpensive for the teachers. And make most of the plays preteen and teen specific. Stories about real issues challenging our teens.
Maybe the plays would open a dialogue between a troubled teen and an adult who could help them.

Twenty-eight short plays later……(who knew?) These plays are used and produced in classrooms around the USA, in England, Europe and Argentina.

This may sound like a sales pitch but it isn’t. It’s advice and encouragement to other writers out there to keep trying different ways to market your talent. You just never know what will take off. My belief is to throw as much as you can at the wall and see what sticks. Of course my little ego-writer self was certain that my novel, Song of the Yukon, would be a best seller. Turns out that “The Creative Writer’s Journal” is my top seller.

If used in the classroom with no formal audience, these plays are royalty FREE to teachers.

To view a complete list go to:https://www.amazon.com.

I was also certain that there were a few writers wondering how to begin, how to write a play so I developed these Journals.

These can be found at: www.amazon.com
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My BLOGS feature INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! October Author, Lisa Jackson. November will be best selling author, Grace Burrowes and in December, Reed Farrel Coleman, contributing writer for Robert B. Parker series

Check out Motivational Moments…for Writers!

To receive my posts sign up for my On the home page, enter your email address. Thanks!

Pumping Out Experiments

Huh?

I want to talk about a few of experiments that I have pumped out over the past few years. Five years ago I published an eclectic collection of ten minute plays. At that time, it was all the rage for theatre companies to produce them, usually in a group for an evening’s entertainment. The ‘G’ rated short plays in the collection were very popular with young actors and educators. This experiment did pretty well; sales plunked along at a decent rate. Then I had another brain storm (oh, no! not another one).

Since teachers have NO budget for the arts, why not write and publish individual short plays for the classroom. Small casts, no set, no costumes. And CHEAP!

The experiment: I wrote two and published them on amazon.com. Within a week, they began to fly off the shelves. It’s several years later and there are now twenty-seven of these short plays. Twenty of them deal with real life issues for today’s teen.

I had been toying with the idea of publishing a Journal for Creative Writing. I had noticed that the post most frequently visited on my blog was ‘How To Write A Play‘. I decided to turn the journal into a handbook about writing. Maintaining the 275 blank pages for the writer’s work, I added tips on how to write a play, poetry, fiction, how to get started (that first sentence) and more.

Have all my experiments been an over-night hit? No…failure must be the spur to achieving more. Some of my ideas have been abysmal rejects. But indie publishing is very economical so why not try? And indie publishing opens other doors.

It all begins with trying, with an experiment. Who would have guessed that my ‘little play books’ would take off like they have. So don’t be afraid to experiment with a writing idea. What have you got to lose?

http://www.amazon.com/Trisha+Sugarek

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DON’T MISS BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! In April, a long awaited interview with Kathleen Grissom (The Kitchen House) May’s author is Jordan Rosenfeld. Michael Saad, Canadian author, will be June’s author.

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Page 1 on Google! The Reward…After Four Years!

‘believe in what isn’t…as if it were…until it becomes…’

Four years ago my web site designer, Leon Adato, designed my web site and insisted that if I wanted to be any kind of viable force in cyber-space that I would have to write a blog. He said the results wouldn’t be over night and might take years, but my work would be noticed. It seems silly now, as I write this, but my first reaction was:

‘No! I don’t wanna! It will take me away from my writing. I have nothing to say. What would I write about?’ I threw a tantrum, basically. But it turned out that I had something to say….about the craft of writing. And then I discovered chatting with other authors was a hoot and began interviewing them (some very famous ones). And then I received requests to review books…and so it went.

The reward. Continue reading “Page 1 on Google! The Reward…After Four Years!”

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