Professional!

Ah, man.  I missed Smatterings Thursday because of this job application I'm working on!  

Let's smash those things together (on Friday) by posting a cover letter I wrote for my play, Mary Dolly Kyrie the Punished, when I recently submitted it to a theatre company in Chicago (thanks, Cathlyn!)  

When you're a writer, cover letters are a lot of fun.  There's no point in hiding who you are with a bunch of stodgy dreck.  In fact, grab them right at the start so their eyes aren't glazed over when they get to your submission.  You're introducing yourself, dammit--so make sure it's you you're introducing and not someone who looks just like everyone else.  

Cover letters, man.  They're becoming the reason I write.  

All You Lovely Readers, 

My play, Mary Dolly Kyrie the Punished, follows this brief cover letter.  

For a play about child torture, it's not nearly as depressing as you might expect.  Mary Dolly Kyrie is forced to hold the barbed wire fence that separates her over-shamed small town from What's Out There, because she alone can peer into the void and report what she sees.  According to Ricky, the town elder, there's nothing worse than keeping secrets—even if telling the truth sometimes earns Mary Dolly graver punishments.  

But it's about more than hurting little girls—it's got jokes, too!  

It's McDonagh, with barbed wire instead of guns, Southern dialects instead of Irish, and fucks instead of fecks.  

It's a coming-of-age story spun around the identities others thrust upon us, and how we find both safety and stigma in those titles.  

It's metatheatre that aspires to be much more than gimmickry, and the jokes way outweigh the frequent displays of corporal punishment (upon a 12-year-old girl).  

Did I mention she's an orphan? 

Mary Dolly Kyrie the Punished was commissioned by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside for their FreshINK staged reading series this spring.  The Spores of Eden, a one-act play, was produced as part of RhinoFest 2011.  Between writing those plays, I've written and designed board games for Probably Entertainment, the gaming company I co-founded.  

Feel free to call my cell at DIGITS or email me at fakeemailaddress@don'temailme.com

Enjoy the punishment jokes, 

Peter Axel Komistra