Joan Kane joins judging panel

NYC Dramaturg Joan Kane, Artistic Director for the Ego Actus theatre production company, has joined the judging panel for the competition! Fresh off a run of her play "Safe" at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, we are happy to have her keen and experienced eyes to help us choose our winning plays. Read more in today's press release:

Ego Actus Artistic Director Joan Kane Joins Judging Panel of Unchained Love Playwright Competition

Living in a marriage culture

Culture is to us how water is to fish - we are surrounded by it, but we often forget it's there. Once in a while though, it hits you like a riptide.

Consider these ads on teen pregnancy that currently can be seen in the New York Subway system:

What's interesting about these is how the word "marriage" is conjoined with the concept of permanence and stability, when the reality can be quite different.

In the first ad, marriage is positioned as a necessary step, along with education and employment, for avoiding poverty. Now, statistics may bear this out, but it's correlation, not causation. Education is (mostly) necessary to get a high-income job, and income is necessary to avoid poverty. But marriage, in and of itself, doesn't contribute income - unless you get spousal support in a divorce settlement. But the advice to get married before having children as a way to avoid poverty is full of assumptions. Consider these alternatives:

• "... get a job and don't have kids, you will avoid poverty"
• "... get a job and establish your career before having kids, you will avoid poverty"
• "... get a job and build a network of loving adults to support you, you will avoid poverty"
• "... get a job and win the lottery, you will avoid poverty."

All of those alternatives are just as true, yet marriage is the only solution offered. Even if you have children out of wedlock (a great word, by the way) you can get child support once paternity is proven - marriage is not a requirement.

The second ad is even more direct: "90% of Teen Parents Don't Marry Each Other." Any one of these alternative wordings would be more relevant to the actual impact on a teen's situation:

• Don't remain in a loving relationship with each other
• Don't raise their children together 
• Don't both financially support their children

The assumption is that if you're married, all of those other things will automatically fall in line, yet only the last one, because of child support laws, has any real truth to it.

I don't want people to think that I'm anti-marriage, but it would be nice if people weren't force-fed the idea that marriage should be a primary goal in life and the only safe way to have children without impoverishing themselves. Marriage, like many things, is great when it works, but lousy when it doesn't. That's probably why people go into it thinking it's going to last forever, because if it doesn't they will usually wish they'd never done it in the first place.

Bottom line: Marriage is a major legal change of identity status that should be weighed on its merits, not because our culture and society expects it. If, after giving careful thought to ALL the alternatives, that choice is right for you - then go for it. Just don't teach your kids that it's the only choice for them.

Post your thoughts in the comments - I'd love to hear what you think.

Call for judges

I'm really happy to say that we are close to announcing our first paneled judge for the competition. She is a high-profile director and a founder of a theater production company in New York. As soon as we get the press release done, I'll be able to give more details!

We're looking to fill a small panel of expert judges (2-3 max) who would review finalist plays (2-3 in each of the two categories, full-length and short) to determine the winners. We will be very respectful of their valuable time, and the majority of the effort will be needed in late December - January 2014 once the entry deadline passes.

In addition to a press release announcement, judges also have the opportunity to write an introductory post on this competition blog if they so desire.

If you know of an influential leader in the theater industry (based in New York preferred, but not a requirement) who might be interested in serving as a judge in the Unchained Love competition, please drop me a line at olny@openloveny.com. 

30 plays in 30 days!

We've had an incredible response to our competition as we approach the one-month mark from the official start on June 26. More than 30 one-act and full-length plays have been successfully submitted so far, which means we have a lot of reading to do!

Obviously, most of these plays were written prior to the start of Unchained Love, so they were not written specifically with the theme in mind. Some of the plays are written entirely in verse; some have songs. Some deal with extreme topics, like sibling incest, and some have a sci-fi theme. It's a cornucopia of dramatic and comedic work!

If you have a story that you think tells the very truth and nature of a modern love relationship, I encourage you to send it in!

A sports metaphor

This is really apt metaphor of how poly people get treated by their monogamous friends all the time. This attitude is why poly support groups exist.

"Polyamory and a sports metaphor"

There is a saying that I heard once from Ken Haslam, who curates an archive of polyamory materials for the Kinsey Institute: "Nature loves diversity; society hates it." And it's true. With so much wonderful diversity in the world, we as a society seem determined to make everyone fit into our own preconceived notions, whether it comes to race, gender, religion, lovestyle or any of an infinite number of ways we express our humanity.

If this competition can open some people's minds about the possibility of happiness outside the traditional model of monogamy, it will have done some good.

Rules for Poly Singles

I just got done sorting through the first wave of entries, and the response has been very encouraging! I'm happy to see that the word is getting around on various playwright and poly web sites and people think this is a great idea. So we are off to a rollicking start!

I found this interesting blog post on some guidelines for being a poly single. As a poly single myself since October, I'll be thinking about my own version of these rules if/when I decide to get into a new relationship. But I thought in just reading these rules, they suggested some interesting plot twists for characters in potential plays. Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://solopoly.net/2013/01/10/rules-for-myself-what-makes-solo-polyamory-work-for-me/

Ready, set, GO!

Here's the press release announcing the "official" start of the competition!
Open Love NY to Award $1,000 in Prizes for Best Plays on Modern Relationships