All paid up

We had a small group last night, just ten of us, but we read some really good plays and heard some excellent performances.

I was especially glad to welcome Mark and Lauren Arnest back to our cozy group. Both have written for the Gazette (Mark was the arts writer for many years), and together they've written several produced plays. Their short comedy The Shrine of Blowbar was performed as part of FourPlay last year at the MAT and their full-length farce Maynard Dines In premiered a decade ago in Midland, Texas after being named runner-up in the McLaren Memorial Comedy Play Writing Competition. They promise to bring some of their stuff to next month's meeting.

Last night was a first of sorts: all of the plays were full-length. We opened with the start of Katherine Perrone's gritty child abuse drama Jade. We followed that with the start of Tim Phillips' rockin' girl band drama The Decibelles. And we wrapped up with the end of my backstage farce Kill the Critic!

There was some discussion of doing a full production of Kill the Critic!, if we can find someone willing to put up with all the physical abuse as the dead theatre critic. So keep your eyes open for developments on that front.

One big piece of news. I've now collected dues from 12 members, which means we've covered our rental cost at the MAT for a year. Any dues we collect from future members will be split between MAT and the Drama Lab and will go towards all sorts of edible goodies. Thanks to all for your prompt payments!