Colleen M. Hughes

This past Sunday was my very first production of a script I wrote! I’ve had staged readings before, but this was the first time the actors were off-book and there were costumes and lights and a set. My ten-minute play “The Mouse” was part of the thirteenth annual Boston Theatre Marathon. It was produced by the Firehouse Center for the Performing Arts in Newburyport, MA. At the helm of this crazy little play was the wonderful director Tim Diering, and the hilarious James Manclark and Tracy Bickel played Jim and Caroline.

My play was in the first hour (of ten), third out of the entire Marathon of fifty. I was trying not to be nervous–I’d seen a rehearsal the week before, and I knew the play was in good shape and that it had gotten laughs at previous readings–but I was still a complete wreck. It helped to have my mother, my boyfriend Allan, and a few friends and classmates scattered around the audience. And the people laughed! That felt so good. The last thing you want to hear at a comedy is total dead silence. And then it was over, and soon after that the whole first hour was over and the first intermission arrived, so I went out to the lobby to congratulate my awesome cast and director. When I got back, my boyfriend was telling me that he heard random audience members talking about my play during the break… how funny it was, and how they should bring a Donald Duck plushie to their office (that makes sense if you’ve seen the play). That was just incredibly awesome… people talking positively about something you created when you’re not in earshot. And if there were people elsewhere in the audience talking about how much they hated it, at least word of that never got back to me. 😉

All in all, it was a great day, and such a wonderful experience for my first-ever production. Hopefully there will be more to follow!