But first, a bit about me!

My name is Eric Marlin. I’m a queer Jewish playwright based in Brooklyn. I’m also an amateur baker, a diehard Tori Amos fan, husband to a very handsome dramaturg, and proud dad to my cats Lox & Caper (pictured below).

This year, I’m embarking on a new project: write 100 new plays in 100 days. I will share those plays as I write them on this blog. It’s part daily writing practice and part public theatrical experiment. I have never worked this way, so who knows what will happen!

Why on earth are you doing this?

In 2002, Suzan Lori-Parks, one of the finest playwrights alive, decided to write a new play every day for one year. The 365 Days/365 Plays Cycle is a staggering tribute to her relentless intellect and inventiveness.

I am not Suzan Lori-Parks, but I am a playwright who admires her artistry and gumption. I have long wanted to attempt a similar project and deepen my engagement with Jewish thought in my writing.

In the Jewish tradition, there are 613 mitzvot, or commandments, that govern every aspect of our lives. I am by no means a particularly devout Jew and do not follow most of these rules. But Judaism is all about wrestling with ideas, and I want to wrestle with these particular ideas.

So, in December 2024, I set a challenge for myself: write 100 plays responding to the first 100 mitzvot as written down by Rabbi Maimonides.

This blog is a documentation of the project as it unfolds.

The Rules

1. I will write one play a day for 100 days, starting on January 20, 2025.
   1. I will not write on Saturdays, in observation of Shabbat.
2. Each play will respond to the first 100 mitzvot, as Rabbi Maimonides wrote down and organized them in his 12th-century opus, Mishnah Torah (you can view his complete list here).
3. I will go through Maimonides’s list sequentially. No skipping around.
4. The plays may address the day’s mitzvot explicitly or obliquely. Whatever plot/form/character/idea emerges is acceptable.
5. There are no formal restrictions. If I consider it a “play,” it counts.
6. I will not spend more than 1 hour writing each play.
7. No play will be longer than 10 pages; most should be under 5.
8. Each play will be published to this blog no later than 24 hours after I write it (so I may not publish the February 1 play until February 2). This will give me some time to reflect and edit before sharing.
   1. If I write the play on a Friday, I may not publish it until Sunday, in observation of Shabbat.
9. After writing the first 100 plays, I will take a month-long pause. I hope to then resume until I have written 613 plays. But life is complicated, and this is not my full-time job, so I want to be realistic in my aspirations.

Join me in my folly!

If you want to join me on this (potentially misguided) journey, sign up below! A crucial aspect of this project is writing in public or digital public. Like all theatre, this isn’t complete without an audience, and you are that audience!

This project is entirely free. I will share all the work on this blog at no cost.