Unfortunate lapse

Maybe you've had this happen -- where you have a pretty good day and then one thing happens at the end of it that casts a pall over the entire day (or even the entire week).

I was enjoying myself at the Toronto Cold Reads 3Fest, though a bit bummed to hear that my piece(s) were going to be pushed back at least one more week to the 19th (and perhaps beyond).  I wrote another 3-4 pages of the last scene of Straying South, and it seems to be coming together, so that's good -- a productive use of my time while waiting for the show to start (I wasn't doing any stage directions this week).  I do enjoy TCR quite a bit, and they do deserve their award for Best Reading Series (see here) -- though it doesn't look like Sing-for-Your-Supper even entered the competition.  Nonetheless, from a writer's perspective (or this writer's perspective), stuff gets sent into TCR and then it takes ages for them to get back to you.  With SFYS I generally hear back within a week.  Also, I am much more in tune with the vibe of SFYS and write material that they like.  So almost all my pieces go to them first.  Indeed, I came up with another pretty solid idea that I will write up shortly and send in for the December reading.

Anyway, I was chatting with folks afterwards and Toronto Fringe was on my mind.  I knew that the deadline was coming up fast, but thought it was early next week, so when I got home I checked the website.  It turns out that the last day to apply for the lottery was Friday.  So I have lost another full year.  I'm so upset that it was my own fuck-up and just not paying attention.  Plus, there are apparently a bunch of theatre festivals I don't even know about that the writers are applying to.  I don't seem to hear about any of these.  So right now I feel completely out of the loop and just really upset.  I definitely feel almost all the positive energy from the weekend is gone.  I probably should just park the creative writing for a while (at least a week) and work on something else.

Edit: Well, I did see that the deadline for Theatre InspiraTO's 13th Playwriting Contest isn't over just yet.  They are looking for 10 minute plays.  I might submit "Double Sabbatical" as it doesn't require too much tweaking to fit this year's theme.  That would make me feel a bit better to get something in this season, as well as trying harder to get a piece into the Future Fest next year (if it even goes forward).  I really ought to put all these deadlines into some calendar, but it is becoming too much like another full time job.

Edit2: Actually, I went and poked around and now I find that even though I specifically emailed someone to try to find out more about a different festival, they never got back to me, and that one closed Nov. 1.  I don't know -- it just feels right now that the Toronto theatre scene is pretty closed and you have to know the right people to even find out about these things.  I'm definitely feeling like an outsider who just isn't going to break in here.  I probably did have a better chance in Chicago had I stuck it out longer there, not least of all because there are simply more companies looking to stage new work.

Edit3: I am quite thrilled to find out in a roundabout way that my piece has been accepted for Toronto Cold Reads next week (Nov 12), but my point still stands that I don't really hear back from them.  The process feels opaque.  But I am extremely grateful that they will put on my piece, and I hope I get a sense of what works and what doesn't.  And maybe people will give me feedback afterwards as well.