Laurie Sandell

My friend Michelle Fiordaliso, author of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Ex, called the other day and asked if I wanted to participate in something called “The Cafe Plays.” The premise is this: A group of five writers meet at a coffee shop at 9:00 AM and are given three hours to write a 10-minute play, based on a theme. (Meaning we each write our own play.) You have no idea who your actors are going to be until you arrive that day and grab two head shots from a pile of manila envelopes. You might get two men, a man and a woman, an old woman and a young man, any number of combinations. As soon as you’re finished writing, your play is handed off to your actors, and they spend the day working with a director. That night, the plays are performed in a theater, before a crowd. Don’t ask me why I said “Yes” to this. I’ve never written a play. I hardly know how to use Final Draft (spent last night going through the tutorial.) But I figured it would be a chance to write some dialogue, to push myself creatively and meet men. I keed, I did it all for the art. Of course, I was a nervous wreck going into this: Spent last night lying in bed trying to come up with dramatic situations; couldn’t think of anything from my own life since I used it all in my book; and imagined being booed out of the theater. But when I got there and saw the photos of my actors–a handsome man and a young woman–I found inspiration right away (hint: My muses were Eliot Spitzer and John Edwards.) Performance is tonight!