Angels Just Show Up Sometimes

I was struggling with the end of Act I of my play. I have written short plays, and have even had a collection performed and published. "Sticks" is my first genuine attempt at a full-length play. I love my characters because they are so unique, yet real, and make me laugh a lot. Some days, the play tends to write itself and seems like an important work for a woman playwright, and other days, I think the whole thing is a stupid idea and who am I to call myself a playwright. After writing both Acts, except for an ending I'm happy with, I've decided to go back and work on it one Act at a time, and hopefully this process will help me give it the ending it wants and needs. 

So here I was, laboring to end Act I. It takes place in a little basement knitting shop, there is a tornado, and my forty-something characters flash back to a scene from their teen years. The last scene is a dream. What? How was this crazy mish-mash of scenes going to end so that my audience would wander out to the lobby for an ice-cold Coca-Cola and not wander on out of the theatre?

Then, the angel left a note. Not in the play, but in real life. You see, on the very day I started my blog there was a huge popup thunderstorm. I had been working on the play, and switched over to go ahead and post my first blog entry. Right before I was about to hit that button, the lights went out and so did my wireless connection. It all seemed strange. I was home alone, so it was also eerie and pitch black in the late afternoon. There was a knock at the front door. Also eerie. But I opened the door and there was a lady. She was housesitting next door, and wondered if the whole neighborhood had lost power. I told her I had already called the utilities' service outage, etc. She was very kind, and we actually had a nice long conversation. She works in public housing, and it seems to me, she spends most of her time helping people. Truly helping people, and caring about their situations. I told her about my blog failure, and she told me about how she hosts a website chat for fans of Susan Boyle, the singer. After talking a while, she went on her way to check on the electricity situation, and I remember thinking she had a glow about her.

So, here I was today--how to end Act I! Then, a note appears on the car outside. It was from her, the housesitting angel, about how she enjoyed our conversation that day, how we talked about Jesus, and just two of us together talking about him brought him in our midst, and inside the note was Susan Boyle's CD, "I Dreamed a Dream". Wow.

So I did. I dreamed a dream, and I came back here and finished Act I (which still, ends in a dream). Not only finished it, but felt good about it. Onto Act II! I just want to know, is it always going to take an act of God, to finish an Act? We'll see how the playwriting goes. I'm putting on the CD.

Enjoy good food, good writing, dreaming your dreams, and stitching something happy.