blog.donnahoke.comDonna Hoke Donna Hoke -

playwright journalist crossword constructor children’s author SCRIPT FEEDBACK & CAREER COACHING SERVICES Donna Hoke offers page-by-page script analysis and career coaching for a reasonable fee. If interested, please inquire at donna@donnahoke.com. MY 2023 WRITER’S YEAR IN REVIEW What a strange year… 2023 was the year I decided to double down on the screenplay momentum I started in 2022 and see if my back catalog of plays would do any work for me. As we all know, it’s been tough for the trenches playwrights to get in the mix—tougher than usual, […] Tags: AN ANTIQUE CHRISTMAS , ANNE OF GREEN GABLES , ANNE OF GREEN GABLES world premiere , BEST LAID PLAN(t)S , Buffalo State University theater , Donna Hoke TEACH , EIGHT DATES , finding neil patrick harris , MABEL TALKS , MADNESS MOST DISCREET , playwrights , playwrights year in review , the couple next door , THE CROSSWORD PLAY , THE WAY IT IS , THE WIVES CLUB , theater , Theatre of Youth , Viv and Larry , Vivien Leigh , Year in review 2023 Posted in Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions , screenwriting , Theater | 6 Comments » 2022 YEAR IN REVIEW: EXPANDING MY HORIZONS Three facts conspire to make this a strange year—both the best I’ve had as a playwright and also the worst. First, I made almost my lowest number of submissions since I started keeping records back in 2011. Just 188. That’s about a third of what I was making in the peak submission years when […] Tags: finding neil patrick harris , LITTLE WOMEN...NOW , multi-hyphenate writer , new plays , play publication , play submissions , playwriting , screenwriting , submitting plays , THE CROSSWORD PLAY , year in review 2022 Posted in Crossword puzzles , Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions , screenwriting , Theater | 9 Comments » THE BIG PUBLISHING QUESTION Hopefully it’s clear now that the question isn’t How do I get published?” but When should I try to get published?” Tags: Concord , play publishing , playwrights , publishing , publishing plays , Samuel French Posted in Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions | 6 Comments » A NEW YEAR’S WISH FOR MY FELLOW PLAYWRIGHTS I posted this a couple of years ago and I’m reposting (with a couple additions) because man, it’s hard to even write a bad play as I’m discovering today lol! Happy new year to all my colleagues, friends, page buddies, and fellow creators who continue to strive to make art even when *it’s […] Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments » 2021: MY YEAR IN REVIEW If 2020 was a doozy, 2021 was doozier. In 2020, there was more sense of being in this together, waiting for the vaccine cavalry to deliver us. I know I didn’t predict how chaotic and divisive things would become, the continued uncertainty around theater, or the depression and fatigue plaguing so many of us, […] Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments » PLAYWRIGHTS, OWN YOUR HOMETOWN! (Getting traction in your own backyard) I know many of you who read this blog or have been to one of my submission seminars know about the Playwright Binge, an email group intended to provide support for the arduous but necessary process of marketing our work. The group has grown so large that the recent sharing of an opportunity prompted […] Tags: bua takes 10 , building a playwright career , getting produced , getting productions , play submissions , playwright career , producing plays , self-producing , theater in buffalo Posted in Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions , ten-minute plays , Theater | 1 Comment » STOP ASKING FOR UNPRODUCED TEN-MINUTE PLAYS! Six years ago, I wrote a blog post called YOU WANT OUR UNPRODUCED TEN-MINUTE PLAYS WHY? It’s worthwhile background reading, but if you don’t feel like clicking on the link to read, here’s the TL; DR: theaters didn’t have great reasons for wanting world premieres of ten-minute plays. In the end, the answers to […] Tags: advocacy , best practices , play submissions , playwright submissions , ten-minute plays , unproduced ten-minute plays Posted in Play Submissions , Productions , ten-minute plays | 16 Comments » WHY IS IT SO HARD TO GET ATTENTION FOR COMEDIES? FIVE REASONS I guess it’s time to post about something I’ve been saying for a while: if you write comedies, it’s tough to find homes for them. Yesterday, my colleague, Ken Levine, posted on his blog that post-pandemic, theaters need to program lots of comedies. I agree, but this suggests that theaters have previously not wanted comedies […] Tags: B Street Theatre , Blackburn prize , Bloomington Playwrights Contest , Christmas 2.0 , comedy contest , comedy play contest , comedy plays , finding neil patrick harris , Finstrom Festival , Ken Levine , Kilroys List , McClaren comey contest , National New Play Network , National Playwrights Conference , neil simon , Neil Simon Festival , Next Stage Press , O’Neill Conference , play comedies , Princess Grace award , Reva Shiner , Woodward Newman , Zoetic Stage Posted in FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS , Playwrights , Productions , Theater | 4 Comments » Three playwright questions as theater reignites I just purchased a plane ticket with some of the airline credit I’ve had since I chose not to travel to a writers’ retreat in March 2020. And it’s to attend a live production of my play, TEACH, in New York City. LIVE. SONS & LOVERS will be in Columbus, OH. LIVE. In August, […] Tags: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES , Anne of Green Gables adaptation , Donna Hoke comedy , Donna Hoke comedy play , finding neil patrick harris , Finstrom Festival , making a crossword , making crossword puzzles , new play exchange , NPX , play productions , play submissions , playwright marketing , playwright submissions , playwrights , playwriting , TEACH , The Lazarus Club , Theatre Aspen , writing opportunity , YouthPLAYS , Zoetic Stage Posted in Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions | 2 Comments » 2020: A PLAYWRIGHT’S YEAR IN REVIEW When it came to results, because of Zoom, this year was actually better than last in terms of readings, and Naatak theater gave FLOWERS IN THE DESERT a stellar virtual production, featuring a married couple who fully staged it from their garage and directed by Harish Agastya; it was so beautiful, I made my husband watch it! Tags: ANNE OF GREEN GABLES , Brilliant works of art , Do No Harm , Donna Hoke TEACH , dramatists guild , HEARTS OF STONE , Laurence Olivier , LITTLE WOMEN...NOW , Naatak , PAST MIDNIGHT: A Visit With Larry and Viv , playwright , road less traveled productions , Vivien Leigh , YouthPLAYS , Zoetic Stage Posted in Crossword puzzles , FINDING NEIL PATRICK HARRIS , Play Submissions , Playwrights , Productions , ten-minute plays , Theater | No Comments » « Previous Entries Don’t miss a single post; SUBSCRIBE HERE! 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