december roundup
feat. rejections and other stats from this year, new projects, & more!
haha hey! here we are. the end of the month, and the end of the year. getting this newsletter out before I head out of the city tomorrow. my sweet perfect baby foster dog has already left for his christmas vacation on a farm and vermont, and 1. no, that’s not a euphemism, he really gets to go hang out on a beautiful farm in vermont, 2. how do I get invited on my dog’s vacation?
some highlights from this month include…
- presenting my work at subway series!
we read the first draft of my new play Sidelines, about a team of NBA courtside dancers. this play is currently sitting in the “what now?” drawer for a little bit while I take in what I learned. it was truly a privilege to work with the gorgeous actors pictured above, and to have worked alongside four of the best playwrights I know for the past three months: penelope gould, annie stein, lydia riess, and amar ahmad. and of course, many thanks to ben and elena, the producers at uptown 1 train, for bringing us together and making this happen!
- sending acceptance letter to the 45+ (!) playwrights whose work will be published with 1319 press next year! there’s been a lot of pinch-me moments with the press this month. I can’t believe how quickly it’s grown, and how much we have in store for the future.
- getting to sit in on some meetings for something very exciting that I will get to share more about soon!!
and now, some end-of-year stats:
for the first time, I decided to write down every play I saw this year in my notes app, for two reasons: the first being that I’m like, I feel like I’m always at a play - how many plays am I actually going to? and the second being that my mind always goes completely blank when someone asks “what have you seen lately?” and I wanted to fix that.
feels absolutely crazy to say this, but I saw 83 plays/readings this year, 20 of which I worked on myself. only four of them were on broadway. the vast, vast majority of them were my friends’ projects. how beautiful!!!
and of course, my annual submission roundup. I submitted to 47 opportunities this year, which feels a little scary when I look at the fact that I submitted to 110 in 2024. but this year, I took a step back from working on submissions to work on generating new material, which I feel like I did successfully, and I was much more picky about what opportunities I did submit to. I really tried to think about whether the time spent on the application would be worth the time spent within the opportunity if I were accepted. I continued my policy of only paying for submissions if it was for something really, really legit. this also doesn’t include my grad school applications, some of which I’m still working on. this balance of being an artist and being of my own administrator is something I am constantly still learning how to do, and thinking about often. I certainly don’t have the answers, and if you think you do, please call me!
wishing you all a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. thanks for being here.
xx sarah g
Hey Sarah Groustra, You are an inspiration! Thanks for sharing all this. Your classmate, Ina May Wool