Scripts. So many scripts. On my computer, on my bookshelves, on my iPad, on my Kindle. Everywhere I look, there are scripts.  It is time for Gulfshore Playhouse to pick the plays for next season. So, Kristen Coury, when she is not in rehearsal directing the world premiere of Suzanne Bradbeer’s The God Game, is busily reading plays. I am busily reading plays. We grab five minutes here, ten minutes there, and we confer.

“Not sure I like the ending.” “ Do the themes resonate with you the way they resonated with me?” “Can we do Play X in the same season that we are doing Play Y?” “Will this be a good fit for our audience?” “Are we pushing the envelope enough? Are we playing it too safe?” “We’ve never done anything like this. This is such a unique voice!” “Will we be able to fit this world into our space?” “How big is the cast?” “I was laughing out loud!”

And we are getting closer. Kristen is homing in on the exact right grouping of 6 plays that will fit together and become another excellent season for Gulfshore Playhouse.

This is one of my favorite parts of my job. Every play is another little magical journey I get to go on. I love thinking about what the set might look like in our space, or what an actor might do with a monologue (or what I might do with a monologue). I sometimes get chills thinking about the audience sitting in the theatre on the night of the performance and the collective gasps that might issue from them when a secret is revealed. I also love thinking about the playwrights, those brave crafts people who make these plays, who birth them, bring them out of the ether and their minds, and create these worlds that I am now getting lost in. And which eventually will have a group of artists (actors and designers and a director and really our whole organization) working together to bring that world to life in front of an audience. That is totally cool, right?

So yeah, reading plays. Reaching out to playwrights. Scouring websites of theatres’ and publishing companies. What are they gonna be? The anticipation is killing me. But in less than a month we will be letting you guys know what is in store for you next season at The Playhouse. Whichever plays we end up picking, I can guarantee that they will be journeys you will want to take with us.