Over the summer, I took a playwriting class. One week, for our assignment, I handed in a scene from The Muppet Play which happens to take place in a subway car. The instructor praised this scene as being an unusual setting, one you didn’t often see in plays, which made me insanely self-conscious. Not because I can’t take praise but instead because…

I realized as he said it that have never written a play for adults that DOESN’T have at least one scene that takes place in a subway. In fact, the entire play of Daddy Issues takes play on a subway platform. There even was a subway scene in TheLibrary before I self-consciously cut it out after noticing my apparent obsession with subways on stage.

Why am I seemingly incapable of not writing subways into my adult stage plays? OK, I did work in New York for many years and commute via subway every day but I also took a bus everyday and I haven’t had the urge to add buses into any of my plays.

Then I noticed something else… The two short stories for adults I’ve outlined recently? Both have subways, one featuring subway cars in a very major role.

But of all the YA novels, short stories and plays I have in various states of finished… there is only one subway and it’s really more of an underground train station, not NYC type subway like the others. My YA is mostly subway free, even the ones that take place in cities.

What the heck? What is going on in my subconscious that content for adults = subways. Is it because I commuted via subway for my first real adult job and I associate it with being an adult? Is it some NYC centric world view that everyone commutes to work via subway train? Is it symbolic of my relationship with rats? What?

I give you permission to psychoanalyze what is going on in my mind here with the subway obsession. Have you ever noticed an unintentional theme in your writing?

Oh, and today is the last day to grab a free copy of Daddy Issues (aka the subway play to end all subway plays) if you haven’t already. You’ve only got until midnight PST so get on that before the train leaves the station, if you will.

I covered my picks for monologues out of The Love of Three Oranges in this post so I thought it would be a good idea to do the same for my newest play.

If you’re a young woman looking for a dramatic monologue, I’d suggest checking out Daddy Issues where Amelia has a powerful dramatic monologue towards the end of the play. Since this play is brand new, you can rest assured that this speech hasn’t already been done to death and you’ll have a chance to show off your acting chops without worrying that your teacher or director is comparing you to everyone else they’ve ever seen perform the same speech.

While the play is normally a mere 99 cents, from January 9th through 13th, you can grab the whole thing completely for free here.

I love hearing from schools and students that performed sections of The Love of Three Oranges in competition and I can’t wait to see how you do with my newest play. If you’re doing Daddy Issues either in competition or for a class, please share your story below!

It’s coming up on that time of year again. You need a scene for you and  your partner to do for your acting class final project. Or you really want to wow them in competition this year but you want something that hasn’t been done a billion times before.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. With a run time of just about 15 minutes, Daddy Issues is an excellent choice for competitions and classrooms with its simple staging and small cast (just 1 male, 1 female needed). The advantage of a shorter 1 Act play like this is that you can perform the whole thing instead of having to create a hacked up version that barely makes sense to fit into the time constraints.

While the play is normally a mere 99 cents, from January 9th through 13th, you can grab the whole thing completely for free here.

I love hearing from schools and students that performed sections of The Love of Three Oranges in competition and I can’t wait to see how you do with my newest play. If you’re doing Daddy Issues either in competition or for a class, please share your story below!