Austin Improv

Mortified is putting together a staged reading during SXSW. By attempting to do this backwards, we have celebs who want to read but we have not yet found a good screenplay or play written by someone in their childhood or teen years. IF you or someone you know has a substantial, lengthy play or screenplay that you wrote under the age of 18, please email me at patnatdan@gmail.com for a once in a lifetime chance.

Oh, man. Back when I was junior high or early high school age, I spent one summer listening all day, every day to Jesus Christ Superstar on vinyl and writing a musical about Mary and Joseph meeting, falling in love, learning that they were expecting Jesus, traveling to Bethlehem, etc., etc. I think it went through the arrival of the Wise Men at the Nativity. To be honest, I'm not actually sure I even finished the script, though I had penned many lyrics, and even worked on some melodies for the songs. It was pretty terrible, upon reflection. But I was so earnest about the attempt, and about the story. It certainly was a noble effort. Sadly, my would-be triumphant work of art has been surely lost to the ages during a long-ago computer upgrade by my parents. Ah, well. C'est la vie.

the first play i wrote in high school was about God and the Devil meeting at a bar and talking about their relationship. in retrospect, half the dialogue (at least in content) was substantially "borrowed" from Neil Gaiman.