Last weekend, I had the great pleasure of writing for the 2nd Annual Playwright Race with the Human Race Theatre Company. This event brought together 30 local artists who performed throughout Dayton’s Art in the City Festival.

We were split into five teams; each team included a playwright, director, production assistant. We drew names out of a bucket to determine which three actors would be in our cast. Then we drew prompts to determine what our scripts would be about. This year, folks on social media were asked to list their favorite novel, folk tale, or piece of classical literature. I drew Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus and The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini. Every part of the process, from first meeting to final performance, took place in less than 24 hours!

It was a whirlwind process, but also invigorating and fun! I wound up writing a short play called Did You Read It?. It is about a Dayton area book club who suspects that one of their members isn’t reading the books, so they host a game show to put her knowledge to the test!

It was a delight to see the play come to life through the efforts of director Christine Brunner, production assistant Gale Krakora, and actors Andrew Ian Adams, Bryana Bentley, and Shaun Diggs. Everyone was so thoughtful, creative, and ready to dive right in to this event! My script included some audience participation, and watching them work off of new people at each performance was a delight.

We also got to watch the other plays that were created during the Playwright Race, and all were lovely! What a treat to get to see Dayton-area artists in action. I had a great experience, and I feel inspired to go write even more!