I don't write a lot of ten-minute plays. I wish I did. I wish I could. But frankly, I'm not very good at writing them. I know people who can seemingly knock them off in an evening. In grad school, I struggled. Short play classes weren't my favorites. The process reminds me of headline writing, where you have to boil a message down to its most bare and pointed presentation. The criticism I usually got in class was I was trying to take on too much in the short form, which actually is the reason I like the long form so much: I can really take a big bite out of something.
But if I did write more it would mean I'd have a lot more scripts to send out and my name would get out there in the public eye more because it's easier to get a short play produced than the long ones I tend to concentrate on.
This one came about because I actually did come home one night to find my neighbor had parked in my parking spot. In my--and most writers' fashion--I mulled over this seemingly outrageous problem (as Adele says in the play: Will, It's just a parking spot. We've got bigger problems.) And in my usual fashion, the draft on this site is actually about number five or six. I have to circle a problem, and check it out from all sides before I can settle down. For me to write a play, i have to know that it is following the guidelines I've set for myself artistically and there has to be a reason this story is being told in the theater, and not say, as a short story. In other words, it has to be theatrical.
Also, I'm the kind of writer that unashamedly reuses material. It's like I've got this old shed in the back, and I just poke around in it until I find the right board and piece of flashing that will cover up that hole. In this case, I borrowed from a longer play I abandoned (and frankly should pick up again) because it was criticized for being "cinematic". Cinematic, schinematic, I say.
Again, I know I'm not a great ten-minute playwright, but I think this one is pretty good. I think it gives a voice to people who need their story told, one that I think I understand and can articulate.
If you want, check it out and leave me a note telling me what you think of it.