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Needless to say I was nervous the moment after my teacher, Marc Palmieri, recommended me for the event. Christine contacted me and added me as a writer. Not only was this my first time participating in the WWSS event, but it was the first time any script of mine was performed. Ever.

After receiving my casts’ headshots and resumes (2F/2M), theme (Graduation), and the lines I’ll never forget, I hopped on the 1-train and the M86 back to my cave. I hadn’t eaten dinner, but was too anxious to eat.

I read the resumes and paid close attention to special skills section. Marian Brock’s “International Folk Dancing (16 years experience)” was the first thing I circled. Folk dancing? “Like Hobbit-shit and shit?” And there was the first line to end up in the script. After 5 minutes of research on what exactly folk dancing is, I decided to make her a vegan, hummus wrap eating, cat loving, aspiring poet, dancing in the park for money hipster whose biggest fear in life is getting worms and/or E-Coli from tainted meat. I wrote and wrote and wrote from 12 to 5:30. The script was too short, I knew it right away. But, I did not want to run over time. I woke up at 8:00, proofed the script, rewrote “the line” so that the folk dancer sings it—best decision I made through the entire process.

I decided to stick in a hooker. Why not? Laura Yost, thank you for dressing, very convincingly, as “The Coppertone Baby of street walkers.” She told me the cast rehearsed in Starbucks and were subject to glares from concerned patrons. Thank you all for offending Starbucks costumers. Much obliged.

Needed an Ewok reference, of course.

And since it would be far too crazy to incorporate actual turkey slapping, I made it the title and a character name. For all those who went home (or whipped out those iPhones and Blackberrys) and looked up the phrase, I hope you added it to your lexicon.

Through the day and until it was over, I was fidgety. Couldn’t eat. Couldn’t sleep.

And I thank everyone who voted for me as the “Best Use of The Line” and to Marian for going all Madonna on it and splitting her jeans in the process.

The night was a success, especially the second performance. Ashley did a great job with cuts and changes. I thank you, Ashley. Although you didn’t get to see the final product, I wish you had.

It’s incredibly rare; a person having an experience and knowing right away, without any retrospect or reflection, that it was important and life-changing. This was one for me.

I enjoyed all the shorts, and I look forward to doing the event again. Maybe next time I can incorporate actual turkey slapping! What do you think, Christine…?