I’m blogging this from the Chumash Casino – which really means that my mind is totally on writing. It’s a scary thing when I’m deciding whether to pursue playwriting as another career. It’s scary because I don’t have a degree in it. It’s scary because I know that I have to leave my comfy area of a community where I know that my work will most likely be accepted. But at the end of the day, I know that I have to do this to get better. This meaning that I need to write more works that are not specifically filipin@-American centered.
However, that’s not to mean that I would totally abandon writing for that community, because that would be denying my DNA, but I guess it’s to be used as an entry way to be considered a playwright able to write for any audience – to be able to write a coherent, yet moving and theatrical piece of drama. I read this in a book, and of course I’m paraphrasing, the thing that separates different playwrights is their unique perspectives and experiences written about a particular subject. I’ll also add in the imagination and creativity used in forming the play. So, a group of writers can be given a plot, and when asked to write that play, all of them would be different. Sounds VERY logical to say, but it’s a good thing for ME to keep in mind because, being a person of color, I can bring that perspective to the table. A perspective needed to not only keep a culture growing, but to also add layers to it as well as to society in the whole.
I think I have crossed the “hobby” line when taking all of this in consideration. There’s something in me that’s a calling to explore and question the world swirling around me. And this can’t be written down in just one, or even a couple, of plays. This burning desire is born out of curiosity and a need to stake my existence in this world we live in.