More catching up to do.

So, even though I'd been hoping beyond hope that I'd get into the Royal Court Theatre's Young Writers Programme, I was rejected, which was quite a downer. I'm really quite proud of the play I submitted, Empire State, and assumed that most of the work submitted for consideration would be more cursorily written, I suppose, than I should have. Still, I know the piece has its weaknesses, and part of the rejection letter was a notification that I'd be receiving a critique in the coming months, so I'm excited about that. From reading parts of The Royal Court Theatre Inside Out, an in-depth account of the theatre's history from the founding of its resident troupe, the English Stage Company, through last season, I've most enjoyed reading the readers' comments on various scripts submitted to the Royal Court over the years. Oftentimes the most successful plays received the most negative comments off the bat. It's all so arbitrary.

Still, I'm not letting the rejection get me down. I'm a newbie, and I'm sure there are many, many more years of rejection ahead of me. Instead, I've come up with a new idea for a play, one that's more ambitious in its scope, including more characters and more significant themes. The challenge of the piece will be the research that it will require, so I think I'll use this winter break to familiarize myself with the material and begin sketching things out.