"Ok, fine. They can read my play."

This is all my eldest daughter's doing. She's 12, and said "Dad, you're always reading Daily Knockouts," --what else would KOS be to a 12 year old-- "and writing programs for those tag things." (alas she doesn't share my interest in architecting metadata) "The Daily Knockouts people don't like George Bush either, so why don't you let them read your play?"

Let me explain...

In 1972 I entered the University of Michigan, and crashed and burned spectacularly three years later. Eventually I ended up in Republican Orange County, California, programming computers for a small investment firm for over 20 years, and a a little over two years ago I returned here to Ann Arbor to finish up my degree, in English. I graduated last spring.  (For any of you about to enter college, I've discovered the secret to academic success. You should go to all the classes, and do all the work. They should tell kids that.)

I was an English major, but primarily studied Drama, and in a series of playwriting courses wrote a play which got a staged reading by a group of theater department students, augmented by my son, who was 8 at the time and kicked ass in the performance. (By the way, the image of theater students being stoned slackers is far from the truth. They're bright and energetic, and have rehearsals and auditions and callbacks and workshops to go to, all in addition to taking regular classes. The slackers don't cut it. I was pretty impressed. Though too many of them smoke cigarettes.)  Then last winter I reworked it some, and last April it won a Hopwood Award for Drama, which is sort of a big deal, though producers don't seem to be knocking down my doors.

Since it's about George W. Bush and Iraq and Vietnam and Macbeth and dead children, my daughter thinks the Daily Knockout people would like it (though I'm not sure whether that says more about the play or about dKos). So I relented.

It's called "Ink," and if you like, you can download the pdf, and let me know what you think. Remember that it was mostly written almost two years ago, and events in Iraq have escalated, but I think the dramatic power still works. (The author name is a pseudonym as required by the Hopwood submission process.)

•  Congrats on the award!

  Downloaded for bedtime reading.

  Good to see you are listening to your kid.  That is they way they tell me it is supposed to be.

  by SarahLee on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:19:57 PM PDT

  •  yep

    although they don't always listen to me, which, though isn't the way it should be, is so often the way it is...

    by The Centerfielder on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:43:19 PM PDT

    •  you may think they don't listen to you, but

      words from a parent can be kind of like...fertilizer. You won't always see immediate results.

      It takes a few years and a few cycles of seasons before the nutrient-fed plant reveals itself.

      by exmearden on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 02:36:15 PM PDT

      •  Great way to put it -

        my kids already think my views are fertilizer.  Well, they're right.  I see growth...

        by wozzle on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 02:58:45 PM PDT

•  I haven't gotten a chance to read it yet

  I'm at work. But I look forward to it.

  I was a theater major myself (at another Big Ten school, Northwestern University). Although I double majored in European History, so as to retain some semblance of academic credibility.

  Now I'm an actor/playwright in New York. I can't wait to read the play.

  Congratulations on your award!

  by brownsox on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:22:25 PM PDT

  •  Congratulations on the Hopwood.

    I've never been big on the theatre, but.....since it's You!.....I'm gonna read your play!

    by Halcyon on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:38:07 PM PDT

    •  lol

      thanks.

      by The Centerfielder on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:41:43 PM PDT

•  Can I be a Daily Knockout? Great coinage! n/t

  by ticket punch on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:47:20 PM PDT

•  A Hopwood? Let me buy you a beer!

  Congratulations, CF.

  by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 01:55:24 PM PDT

  •  You're probably

    the only other Kossack who's heard of the Hopwoods.

    by The Centerfielder on Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 09:19:50 AM PDT

•  Congrats on your award!

  I love reading plays, so I'll check it out.

  by fabooj on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 02:14:22 PM PDT

•  Until you're Bill Virdon,

  I don't wanna hear about awards (;-)>

  But great going, Centerfielder.  

  by wozzle on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 03:00:50 PM PDT

  •  A rec for the Bill Virdon reference (n/t)

    by Dump Terry McAuliffe on Thu Feb 22, 2007 at 04:36:34 PM PDT

  •  Virdon

    was Rookie of the Year in 1955, beating out, among others, a young Puerto Rican outfielder named Roberto Clemente.

    As far as awards go.

    Off topic, but if I were reincarnated as a baseball player (not a pitcher), I should like to be modeled after Roberto Clemente.

    by brownsox on Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 07:35:00 AM PDT

    •  Agreed about Roberto,

      but Virdon was a stellar player in his own right.  He's rather consistently overlooked because he played his whole career next to Roberto.  

      by wozzle on Fri Feb 23, 2007 at 08:21:39 AM PDT