I wrote my first play, Sitter, for the New Works Festival at the University of Alberta in 2011; it was short and goofy and I adored the process of watching it come to life. The following year, I wrote another play, Walter Alone, for the same festival and that’s when I came to the realization that writing plays and watching them hit the stage was more fun than eating marshmallows and peanut butter. So I promptly replaced one hobby for another. Just kidding, I would never give up marshmallows and peanut butter.When I heard that Cradle to the Stage was accepting play submissions, it was already the day before the deadline. At first, I resigned to submit something for the following year but excitement got the better of me. Before I knew it, I had canceled my date with myself to practice the moonwalk and was sitting at my computer writing a story that, I realized, had wanted to come out for a quite some time. Thus, The Ugly Spot was born.
During the process, I had the great fortune and privilege to work with a passionate and talented writer, actor, teacher, director and dramaturge who I like to call Brian Dooley. You can call him that too, because that’s his name. It’s no exaggeration to say that Brian revolutionized the way I look at theatre and writing; he asked me hard questions about my work and pushed me to challenge myself and challenge my writing. Since September, The Ugly Spot has shape-shifted more times than that blue lady from X-Men and it’s been a great learning experience for myself as a new writer. The finished product is a short piece on life, death, and forgiveness and I hope that you’ll enjoy it.
