Recently there was a long thread of conversation on the dramaturg listserv on how literary departments should respond to rejected playwright submissions. I decided to explore Twitter as a new art form within this topic. I use the 140-character restriction after the fashion of restrictions that iambic pentameter or haiku pose. I posted the following Tweets (and revisions) to the list.

Daily Twitter Submission (First Draft)
Word Count N/A
Characters (no spaces) 120
Characters (with spaces) 149

I hate reading plays. I love doing plays. I wish more playwrights would stop writing plays and start doing plays. I’d meet them there in a second.

Daily Twitter Submission (Second Draft)
Word Count N/A
Characters (no spaces) 115
Characters (with spaces) 141

I hate reading plays. I love doing plays. I wish playwrights would stop writing, start doing… be both Words, the Speaker & Deeds, the Doer.

Daily Twitter Submission (Final Draft)
Word Count N/A
Characters (no spaces) 115
Characters (with spaces) 140

I hate play scripts. Submissions read like so many cattle at the slaughterhouse. Brave words don’t just talk the talk; they walk the walk.

Theatre Manifesto

Flesh hunters. Queequeg is our playwright. Our script, his indecipherable tattoos. Prescient, he transcribes his tattoos onto our coffin.