Last Friday was our third Shakespeare Reader’s Theatre event of this spring (thanks to the Naperville Public Library for providing us with rooms for two of the events). What is Shakespeare Reader’s Theatre? It’s an opportunity for writers/participants to stretch themselves out of their comfort zones, experience the words of the Bard first hand, and read/act out a Shakespeare play. Last Friday we did Romeo and Juliet, which featured some exciting fight scenes, romantic exchanges and humor amidst the drama. Here we have Brian as Romeo dueling with Barry’s Tybalt while Katherine relaxes in the background since Juliet is not in this particular scene ;-).
We are almost into May; the Journey’s activities primarily are concentrated in January through June and then in September. This has been a fairly active year for the Journey, with the following Paths in addition to three Shakespeare Reader’s Theatre events that Catherine and I organized:
- Katherine’s Editing Path to help the novelists edit their novels
- Ed’s Japanesey™ and Asian Paths, which have involved meals at great restaurants as well as exposure to cultural elements in the Chicago area (such as Japanese bakeries and markets). Ed has regaled attendees with entertaining stories and interesting facts on each outing.
- Sarah’s monthly MiniWriMo challenges, offering little glow in the dark dinosaurs as prizes for writing 10K words in one week
- The Horror Anthology of short stories, flash fiction and poems, which is currently in progress
- Steven and Catherine’s Writing Excuses Path, which follows the terrific free Master Class by the Writing Excuses podcasters
- Dan’s Path for freelance writers (this is new and just beginning)
- my music Jam Path (also new and just beginning)
We’ve had two workshops at each of our monthly meetings, covering editing (Katherine Lato), critiquing, the Writing Excuses Path with exercises (Catherine Brennan and Steve White), some Story Walls, and Marketing for authors (Willow Sanders), POV/Perspective (Stephanie White).
Missing thus far from previous years are Paths such as the Accountability Path, the Spirit Path, and the Archery Path (though that may yet occur this summer).
Tim is a founding member of the Journey, co-Municipal Liaison for the Naperville region of National Novel Writing Month, and the author of several short stories.
