Today is the 300th day of 2014! Which, if you’ve been keeping track, would mean that I should have submitted 300 plays by now. I’m still a bit behind, but I’m hoping that today is the day I catch back up. So far to date I’ve submitted 291 scripts, I only need to send out 9 more scripts to catch up!

It also means that I’m coming up on having only 65 more to go! 65 is such a small number when compared to 365, I’m hoping that the rest of the submissions just fly by.

Be sure you check back in as the year ends, I will be posting my stats; submission total, acceptances, and rejections from this year, and the number of opportunities I’m still waiting to hear from.

And now, to get to those submissions….

I got some exciting news this morning, my one-act Much Ado About Mathletes will join Gatton Community Theatre’s young actor showcase Scratch Scripts! Hooray! This is like the little play that could.

Exciting news! My play Reading Babar in 2070 was selected for PlayGround’s Planet Earth New Play Festival! That means this Monday (October 20th) you, yes you(!), can see it along with five other brand new plays. Isn’t it nice to have plans already for those dull Monday nights?

Here’s the full line up:

The Announcement by William Bivins, directed by Rebecca Ennals

Reading Babar in 2070 by Rachel Bublitz, directed by Michael French

Preapocalyptica by Erin Panttaja, directed by Delia MacDougall

The Bake Sale by Mandy Hodge Rizvi, directed by Jennifer King

The Android and the Bishop by Kirk Shimano, directed by Jeffrey Lo

The Universe on Ice by Maury Zeff, directed by Jim Kleinmann

The show will start at 8pm, and it all happens in Berkeley at the Berkeley Rep!

There will be an encore performance of these plays down at Stanford on the following day, Tuesday October 21st (more details soon!), but be sure to keep your eyes out for that too!

Here’s the facebook event page so you can RSVP and get all your questions answered: https://www.facebook.com/events/562943900471908/

See you there!

PlayGround has released the first topic for their 20th Monday Night PlayGround Season! The six plays selected will be the first play in the brand new Planet Earth New Play Festival, brought to us by PlayGround and Sustainable Earth Coalition. Exciting new stuff! And the topic is…………………………… (insert drum roll here) ………………………

IS EARTH F**KED?

Curious about what we come up with? Head over to Berkeley Rep October 20th and see the selected scripts. While you’re at it, feel free to buy a subscription pass, so you don’t miss any of the #newplay fun this year! Here’s the link for the PlayGround box office: http://playground-sf.org/boxoffice/

And now if you’ll excuse me, I have a play to write.

At the start of this year I gave myself the (maybe impossible?) task of submitting 365 times this year. And I kept up with it until this summer, where turbulence hit in the form of three major projects happening at once; Iro, The Red House Monster, and my first ever screen play, Girl Friend. Since then life and grad school have been getting in the way of me catching up, but I have high hopes that I’ll make it (probably).

Anyway, since it’s the beginning of the month, I thought I’d catch you up… For the month of September I submitted 32 times! Which brings my yearly total up to 243! Oy vey. That’s a whole lot of submissions, but not quite enough. It’s day 278 today, so that makes me 35 submissions behind. Think I’ll make it up? I’ll certainly try! Maybe I should start taking bets.

Oh happy day! The Red House Monster, commissioned by the San Francisco Olympians Festival has been cast! Check it out:

The Red House Monster by Rachel Bublitz

directed by Ariel Craft

Maria Leigh as Hannah

Eden Neuendorf as Cora

Jan Gilbert as Mother Gold and Geryon

Ron Talbot as Sheriff

Megan Briggs reading Stage Directions

I am over-the-moon ecstatic about working with these folks. This is going to be incredible. So do NOT miss this show!

The Red House Monster will be read on Saturday, November 15th at 8pm at the Exit Theatre in San Francisco with Veronica Tjioe’s play Half-Breed.

So November 15th! See you there!

Last night was the “White Council” meeting for the San Francisco Olympians Festival V: The Monster Ball. All the writers and directors in one room going over festival details, sharing food, drink, and pages from the new plays. Festival VI kicks off on November 1st with the opening night party to be held at The Exit. And then THREE solid weeks of brand new plays!

Amazing, isn’t it? I think so.

28 new plays, yep TWENTY EIGHT, brand-spanking-new plays, will have their first public reading during those three weeks (November 5 – 22), and let me tell you, after hearing bits of everyone’s work last night, this is not going to be a year you can miss. So drop everything you have going on in November, and move to the Exit. You will not regret it.

Auditions will be this Sunday and Monday (woo!), and with actors we will have the final piece to the artistic puzzle that makes up the festival. So stay tuned folks! As soon as I have an official cast, I will yell it from the rooftops… And post about it here.

My play based on Geryon, The Red House Monster will go head-to-head in a fight to the death with the talented Veronica Tjioe’s play based on the Minotaur. That match is November 15th at 8pm, be there or risk not knowing who would win in a fight, the Minotaur or Geryon, a three-bodied, winged, red giant.

And that’s not all! Visit the facebook event page for all the other terrific shows happening in those three weeks: www.facebook.com/events/464860963653893/.

And get ready! November is coming faster than you think.

Very happy to announce that I will join the PlayGround Writers Pool for the second year! You’ll probably want to get a subscription, just in case any of my plays make it in… Here’s the box office link for that: playground-sf.org/boxoffice/.

This year’s Monday Night PlayGround series will go up on the following dates:

Oct 20, 2014 @ 8PM

Nov 17, 2014 @ 8PM

Dec 15, 2014 @ 8PM

Jan 26, 2015 @ 8PM

Feb 16, 2015 @ 8PM

Mar 16, 2015 @ 8PM

All performances will be held at Berkeley Rep. If you’ve never made it out for Monday Night PlayGround, it is a ton of fun. A lot of magic in the air as a ton of artists put some very, very, fresh plays up and on their feet. And if you’ve come out before, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

SO! Subscribe! And keep an eye and ear out for my news, you never know when a play of mine will get picked!

I’m so excited to announce that my ten-minute Christmas play Mom’s Ham is bring produced with the Charles Stewart Howard Playhouse in their annual holiday show, Hard Candy Christmas. This will be my second year in a row in this program, last year they produced Oy, Oy, Oy, Merry Christmas! and I am thrilled to be back!

Show dates and times will be announced soon so stay tuned!

I’m taking a short play workshop class with Peter Nachtrieb! Our first assignment was to write three 1 – 3 minute plays. This was my favorite of the three. But now I want to write nothing but plays for these two characters. Probably not the best career move, but they’re basically the best. Keep reading and you’ll see why…

Fanny Pack a short play by Rachel Bublitz

FURIA and PERDITA – both extremely ugly and old females – lounge in chairs around a table, blood covering their faces and dribbling down their front. The table itself is covered in blood and bits of guts/bones. A fanny pack sits in the center of the table, on the floor around them are other pieces of clothing.

PERDITA We ought to think about cooking one. Might be a nice change.

FURIA That’d take forever.

PERDITA Not if we cut ‘em up all tiny-like… Add some salt and spice.

FURIA I like ‘em kickin’. Otherwise what’s the point? Otherwise we might as well be havin’ a stinkin’ burger.

PERDITA Yeah… That’s right…. I’m just good and thick, that’s all I am….

FURIA … Hey, cheer up no Perdy! (Taking the fanny pack off the table and strapping it on HER head) Lookie-here, lookie-at-me, with my fancy bag, just walking ‘round like I was King o’ Everything!

PERDITA laughs.

PERDITA Me next!

FURIA tosses the fanny pack to PERDITA, SHE puts it on.

PERDITA (CONTINUED) Oh yeah – and lookie-lookie I don’t think no one’s gonna eat me!

FURIA and PERDITA erupt with laughter. It takes THEM a while to recover.

FURIA Oh now…. That’s good… Oh yeah.

Perdita throws the fanny pack across the room.

PERDITA All this laughin’s got me hungry again!

FURIA I’d go for another.

PERDITA Thinkin’ mallet or ax?

FURIA Oh, the mallet. Yes. Makes the meat so nice ‘n tender.

End of play.