I think the very best thing that came out of this experience (for me at least) was that there was a group of theater artists who were really invested in my work. I think they loved the play (Plank) more than I did. Think about it: it was originally written as a ten-minute play, but all the work that went into it, the mining of the drama (one meeting, four rehearsals, and a tech rehearsal) made it about a twenty-minute production, and it was such a wonderful, fun twenty minutes of theater, even though I'm embarrassed that I'm saying it myself. But it was; and you should know when, as a playwright, your expectations are being met and when we--a group of theater artists--are doing something good. (Conversely, we should be even more aware of when we're doing crap.)
I think another testament that it was a good experience for everyone was how we all were profusely thanking one another at the post production party I was being thanked for providing a script that they could all play with and have so much fun with, and I was thanking the director and the cast for making it come alive the way they did, and we were all thanking one another for all being so open in the rehearsal room. As much as some people say they love collaboration in the rehearsal space--and there are still tons of people who still won't commit to collaboration; they want you to simply hand over the script and leave them alone-- I think it's still very hard to come by. Because of this open, collaborative process, the cast was coming up with new discoveries even during the performaance, and the director and I were both so tickled to see.
So, one more profuse thank you, to Kyle Metzger (director), Shannon Sullivan (Potpee), Amanda Marikar (Helper 1) and Kyla Schoer (Helper 2).