MY CURRENT ARTIST’S STATEMENT

Hello reader. I wanted to share the current letter I’m including in my playwriting applications, for writer’s groups and development opportunities and things. I always wonder what people write in theirs so I thought I’d share mine. This was written for Youngblood at EST, but I will adapt it to fit other companies as well, if the shoe fits. Thanks for reading.

Hi Youngblood. This application is due tomorrow and I’m tired, because I have cystic fibrosis and I’ve had a big flare up all weekend. So let me make this honest. I want to be in Youngblood because I am a playwright, age 28, currently writing plays in New York City. I want to be in Youngblood because I want friends who are also writing plays. This weekend a friend of mine wrote a play about cystic fibrosis, a disease that I have and that I’ve never seen on stage, except when I’ve written it. But because of this same disease, I couldn’t go to the show that day, because I had an incident, so I gave up my tickets. But it meant a lot to me that this writer friend of mine took the time to learn about my disease and ask my opinions about things and try to get it right, and I’m going to read the script and have coffee with her later.  I want to be in Youngblood because I’m almost always tired, and I’m almost always sick, and it’s hard to leave the house when you’re tired and sick. You wouldn’t know it to look at me; when you look at me you just see a wiry woman in probably perfect health. I can do things, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. I’m a nanny to an infant whose parents are writers too, I’m a wife to a good man, I volunteer, et cetera. I don’t protest because crowds have germs and I am prone to heatstroke. During the last protest, I babysat kids whose parents are in ESL classes instead. I have friends and I go do things. My day begins with an hour of lung treatments and my day ends with that same hour, and every meal has lots of medication.

I want to be in Youngblood because I’m young, I’m tired, and I’m sick. And I write plays from that place. I don’t write plays from the place that most people see, the active, funny, happy person. That girl doesn’t need to write plays. I need to write plays.

I think a lot about every play being my last play, because life with this disease is complicated and scary and unpredictable. If this was my last play, would I be proud? Would I feel good, knowing this is the last statement I made with my art while I was on Earth? If Pregnant Pause was the last play I got to write, I would feel proud. I will probably live into my 30s or 40s, maybe 50s or 60’s if I do everything right and I don’t hit any major roadblocks. Anyway, let me join Youngblood! I also make a really good gluten-free bread, hearty and poor.