Plays of Plays

Last week I had a creative writing assignment for American literature class. I had to write a short story, a poem, or a play about something American. My mind remained blank up through the deadline for formulating a basic idea; then when my teacher asked us to hand in our concepts I ripped out a sheet of paper and wrote, "Play about a student having to do this assignment. Dialogue about American stuff."

I successfully wrote the play from that single premise. The student struggles to write something with meaning while meeting the assigned requirements, commenting on the general mind of society when it comes to producing individual works.

My classmates thought it was ingenius, mostly because the kid writes a play about a kid who writes a play about a kid writing a play to infinity.