Being Grateful

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Being Grateful

Written by Tony Adams

Tuesday, 26 August 2008 13:52

Play reading at Halcyon house is in full swing. We've received ninety-eight submissions in the month of August (so far). We don't produce new-work exclusively, so we're reading published works as well. We read scripts year round, but as the end of the year approaches, it always picks up. I went back and revisited an old post and I think it's still pretty true of how I evaluate scripts. I try to remember that as I'm going along.

We're a small company that can only afford to produce three plays and a festival each year. So, that means there are at least ninety-five submissions from this month alone that we aren't going to produce. We're getting ready to enter our third season, and while I'd like to think that everyone knows us, in reality most theatre audiences or artists probably have not.

While we don't have the resources or pay-scale of a large institutional theatre, one thing I work very hard to do is be thankful that people want to work with us. At the end of the day we're just story tellers. There's two parts: the story, and how you tell it. A great production requires both. So any theatre is only as good as the scripts they're producing/creating. Any theatre is only as good as the people working with them.

Almost a hundred plays were sent to us in a month. Now expand that to bigger places with wider reach and the sheer number of playwrights submitting can be scary. One small part of development hell is simply numbers. If a company gets one-thousand scripts for a 10 show season, and they do exclusively new work, that's 990 plays being rejected each year. That's a lot of jilted partners.

So to some extent, yes, writers should be grateful if someone chooses to produce their script. That should not mean turning into a door mat and being walked over. As with any relationship honesty and communication are pretty necessary parts of the equation. It's a partnership, and that breaks down when one partner treats the other like shit. It breaks down if one side is a stalker, or one side simply ignores the other.

One of the reasons for the animosity between many writers and directors/theatres is that one side treats the other like shit. And then there's the retaliation and we get a cycle of mistrust.

Theatres that don't want to read scripts, or don't have the time too could simply not accept submissions. But many don't, they create hoops to jump through query packets and agent submissions etc.

Writers who don't like a companies work, or whose script doesn't fit well with that company don't have to send it in.

Funding for developing new work could go to companies that actually produce new works. That would change the landscape significantly.

Long before a director can even think of changing a line without a writers consent, or a writer can claim the right to approve all personnel, or people can argue over copyright, or any budgetary concerns--there's usually been a breakdown in the relationship.

One partner cannot be bothered with the other's needs. They're to busy to notice their partner. Lack of resources; I'm so busy at work right now; it's not you, it's me.

I've gotten a lot of grateful messages from writers this month--not for accepting their submissions; not for producing their work. Grateful for me taking a minute to send an email acknowledging we've received their submission. In essence, writers are grateful just for a receipt. Many don't even bother with that.

Not every play is great, many won't even be good, but a handful might be spectacular. On the off chance, shouldn't more theatres be grateful enough to give a receipt?

cross-posted at Tony's Blog