Susan's profile
Looking back, maybe it's not surprising that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up. My family loves stories: true, made up, spoken and read that entertain and inform, sadden, challenge and delight. Pop, my paternal grandfather, a son of Irish immigrants, recited narrative poetry from memory when our family gathered for Sunday dinners at their home in Queens. A large man with a strong voice and a seventh-grade education, Pop shared "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" by Robert W. Service and "The Face on the Barroom Floor" by Hugh D'Arcy. He was riveting. Then my father and Aunt Dipper sang while Mona, my grandmother, played the piano on an old upright that was out of tune. We kids were also expected to perform -- a song, a poem, a dance, a joke or a riddle.
For several decades as a freelancer, I contributed human interest stories and essays to newspapers and magazines, including The Christian Science Monitor, the Baltimore Sun, the Binghamton Press, the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Washington Post, Johns Hopkins Nursing; and JD, the University of Maryland School of Law alumni magazine, among others.
At one point I tried writing a mystery. But I discovered I didn't have enough words in me to write a novel. The compression of language that's inherent in plays appeals to me. Plus, I've loved theater since my father took me to see A Man for All Seasons and Man of La Mancha in New York City when I was a teenager. With help from courses at The Writer's Center in Bethesda and classes with Ernie Joselovitz's Playwrights Forum, I began writing plays. Participating in critique groups like the Playwrights Group of Baltimore and workshops sponsored by the Dramatists Guild have helped me to improve my craft and to reinforce the idea that playwriting is collaborative. Since the 90s, I've written a total of 20 plays that have been produced -- two full lengths for the Baltimore Playwrights Festival and 18 shorts, mostly 10 minutes, produced by 37 theaters in the U.S., Canada, and England. In addition, 16 of my plays have had readings; three of them were full length and 13 were shorts.
When I first started out, the advice was to write what you know. But in writing plays, I learned to write what I care about. For example:
Women's reproductive rights:
- Feeble-Minded White Trash, full length, inspired by a true story
The homeless:
- Black Widows, full length, "inspired" by a true story, published by Next Stage Press
- Taking the A Train, 10 minutes
- Waterfront Property, 10 minutes
- Skeletons in the Cellar, 10 minutes
Gun violence:
- Queen for a Day, 10 minutes
- Just a Bus Driver, 10 minutes
The physically disabled:
- The Next Dance, full length
- Just Another Face in the Crowd, 10 minutes
- Headlong into the Abyss, 10 minutes
- Shattered, 10 minutes
Drug addiction:
- It's My Party!, 10 minutes
- A Club No Parent Wants to Join, 10 minutes
- My Heroine, 10 minutes
- Nature: The Last Refuge?, 15 minutes
Humor:
- Consumer Confidence, 10 minutes
- Circumcised or circum-skeptic: And the winner is? 10 minutes
- A Table for Two, 10 minutes
- Meet Me in the Endive, 10 minutes
Aging and dementia:
- When I Fal in Love, It Will Be..., 10 minutes
- Waterfront Property, 10 minutes
Romance:
- A Modern Pas de Deux, full length
- A Senior Moment, 15 minutes
Overly aggressive marketing:
- Suite 510, 10 minutes
Harriet Tubman:
- The Jackson, 10 minutes
Genealogy and overstepping boundaries:
- 23and..grandma? 15 minutes
I would like to thank the following for their support over many years: directors Barry Feinstein and Andre Tittle, dramaturg Lisa Wilde and playwrights Kathleen Barber as well as Rich Espey, Rosemary Frisino Toohey, Pat Montley, Dwight R. B. Cook, John Conley, S.J., Kevin Kostic and Amy Bernstein.
I am a lifetime member of the Dramatists Guild and a longtime member of the New Play Exchange.
To read my plays, go to my website at the New Play Exchange: https://newplayexchange.org/plays/users/1616/susan-middaugh
