Time Steps: ASW's Annual 10-minute Play Showcase

Tomorrow night, Austin Script Works opens their annual showcase, Out of Ink. This year's production is called Time Steps and is a selection of eight short works that were written during last year's ASW Fall Fling. Participating playwrights had 48 hours to pen a 10-minute play and were required to use the following "ingredients": The play must go backward, from beginning to end; Include a sudden dance break that causes a shift in the action; Include three things your mother told you not to do.

As always, Out of Ink boasts top-flight directors and a fantastic cast. To give a preview of this sampler box of talent, we've asked the eight winning playwrights the same four questions. Today and tomorrow we'll share their responses. First up to bat: Marshall Ryan Maresca.

Give us brief intro to you—an idea of who you are and what you're about.

My current project is writing fantasy and science-fiction novels and the upstream battle of publication. Most of my theatre work, beyond Austin Scriptworks, back when I did it more often, was with Vortex Repertory and the (now-defunct) Public Domain Theatre Company, as well as my own (also now-defunct) Disciples of Melpomene. I started writing plays in college, but I had always been strongly drawn to theatre since childhood. Novel-writing is my current passion.

Give the title and a very short synopsis of your play. Is this something you had in mind before the Fling, or is this a new idea that was inspired by the ingredients?

Ten Minutes Ago is about a suburban couple whose house is visited by a mysterious stranger, and the consequences of that visit. While I think the vague idea of it was brewing in my head beforehand, it didn't come together until the ingredients sparked things. I actually went through several ideas before locking into this one.