Well now. Doesn’t this feel just fine n’ dandy. I’m smiling ear to ear. Turns out “Exposed To Strangers” came across the finish line like a pro.

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Here (below) I’m listed as a finalist. Now you know and I know that being a finalist is very, very “nice”. In the nicest sense of the word.

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However, as I continued to discover — here I am listed with distinction (bold print my own 🙂 as the 3rd place winner. HOLY WHOOP-DE-DO! Stop the Apolcaypse! There I am in black and white.

Winner: “Fourteen”by Amy Crider, Chicago, IL
2nd Place: “This Imperfect Vessel”by Josh Baxt, La Mesa, CA
3rd Place: “Exposed to Strangers” by Alonzo Lamont, Baltimore, MD.

If there wasn’t no gosh-darn “dam-denic” I’d be headed down to the bayou in March. But will take a Zoom Festival with all the trimmings, thank you very much. What an inspiring start to 2021. And with my latest play that’s fresh as the driven snow, barely outta my computer bake shop. Alls it had was a reading at my friends Holly and Jason’s house a while back (Holly Morse-Ellington and Jason Tinney are now kick-ass Theater Faculty at McCallie School down in Chattanooga) —

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— but other than that reading, that’s about it.

Since July I of 2020 I will have had three Zoom readings from three separate organizations. The Dominion Arts Foundation in Atlanta did a reading of “That Serious He-Man Ball,” Some1Speaking chose “B-Side Man,” and now the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival chose “Exposed”.

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Maybe I’m onna roll. How grand is that? I don’t have any existential expressions regarding the playwriting life. Like everything else in life, it’s a daily grind. There’s always levels of acceptance, and in most cases, the acceptance levels are downright invisible. You just have to know that what you write is either that good, or that special or that different. And that may seem woefully obvious to you, but to someone reading your stuff it could be completely lost in translation.

It’s good when people get it, and it’s you they’re getting.

So there I am at my trusty MAC when some hopeful news comes my way. You may or may not know that I apply to contests and theatres who advertise for submissions all the time. This is a blessing and a curse, since you can guess who comes out on top of that equation. Let’s just say the odds are not in the playwright’s favor. Anyway, the Tenessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival wrote to say that my play “Exposed To Strangers” was a finalist. Hooray! That’s hellzapoppin stuff! That’s big slices of chocolate cake for everybody stuff!

I’ll get their yea or nay decision sometime in February. Who knows? I could be one of 20,000 “Finalists”. But my aim is high, and I’ll stack up my play with anybody’s play. That’s the run-a-muk optimism 2021 has hypnotized me with. Yessssssss buddy. Yesssssssss sir-reeney. I’ve done humble long enough, now I’m showing my real colors. So the Tennessee Williams Festival folk had better come to their senses and pick me da winner. No ifs/ands/or buts. Here’s the short synopsis for “Exposed To Strangers”:

“A married middle-aged librarian, Odysseus, decides to send letters to a “famously” imprisoned middle-school teacher who had a controversial affair with a 12 yr. old student of hers. The controversy evolved into a full-scale tabloid media spectacle, and drew national outrage. Ultimately, the teacher was found guilty of sex with a minor. Though Odysseus writes letters, he’s never received one in return. Till one day a letter arrives, much to the surprise of his wife.”