As many of you know, I could live and breathe theatre 24/7/365 as long it was a sustainable vocation. And I love every part of it except having to tell folks that I chose someone else for the role they applied for.
I well know firsthand the disappointment of hearing any sentence that begins with “Unfortunately…” I send my work to well over 200 submission opportunities (opps) every year. Most I never hear back from. (I don’t really expect to, assuming their reading “staff” is one unpaid theatre grad student living on Ramen noodles.)
Of those who do respond, some include the word “Congratulations,” and that just makes my soul fly. Others…well, you playwrights out there know what I mean. The emails that tell you how many scripts they’d received, way more than they’ve ever had before, and how difficult it was to decide. And to please not lose hope in your own talent…blah blah blah.
I’m one of thousands of active playwrights seeking productions. And, because we outnumber available theatres by a huge margin, productions are few and far between. Theatres are notoriously expensive to run, and maybe one percent make serious money. Or did, anyway. Covid knocked out so many of them. Zoom is an alternative, but only a stopgap, not a real alternative. Theatre is best experienced live and up close.
And still I labor over every opportunity that seems to fit my work. The odds are against me in many ways, but rather than bemoan the slim chances for success, I plow onwards. Like the NYC lottery used to say, “Yo! You gotta be innit to winnit!”
I joke that I went into theatre for the glory, respect, and money. In truth, my theatre career has been in service of love, no other reason.
I believe in my work, indeed I love my work. Is it the best out there? Most surely not, but it’s pretty damn good most of the time and I believe it is as good as or better than many other plays. So I give these theatres that reject it the benefit of the doubt; there’s no question that choosing the works they’ll produce is indeed difficult. I go through that decision making process myself, as a producer and host of a podcast/radio show that sometimes features play readings.
And it’s hard to disappoint folks whose work is seeking the light. But every year I have to do just that, because that is how the process works. Onstage/Offstage offers four or five opportunities for audio production and an interview per year, and I receive about 200 submissions for those few slots. Ninety-eight percent of the submitting playwrights are inevitably disappointed.
Deciding is hard. The criteria are stiff: Excellence, for one. Is the play consistent, linear, logical, natural, believable? Does it reflect genuine humanity—as I and my reading committee see it? Does the submission adhere to the stated stipulations? If I ask for a specific titling format, such as, say OSOS PLAY TITLE PLAYWRIGHT NAME and someone sends in a file called PLAYTITLE.pdf, then I assume they are equally as careless in their own writing and their play goes in the recycling bin unread. If I ask for 10-12 pages and I get 15…into the bin. With 200 plays to judge fairly and a certain amount of time to produce, I cannot make exceptions; everyone needs to pay attention to the basic request. It’s not that hard.
And then it comes down to actual selection. Some will appeal to me and the committee much more than others. This is all subjective at this point. Some, held in comparison to the others, stand out. Getting to the final few, though, is the tricky part. Having fifteen very worthy finalist plays to fit five slots makes my choices difficult. I’ve been doing this every year for the 11 years of Onstage/Offstage, and I’ve served on several reading committees over time, and it is never easy. Never. Sometimes other factors (largely out of control of the playwright) determine the winner, such as ease of casting, continuity of purpose, audience demographics, dialogue flow, word choice, unity of theme, tone of play resolution. I even saw a coin flip once when a committee simply couldn’t choose between two excellent submissions. How I felt for the losing playwright!
I wish there were more opportunities for playwrights to get their work in front of an audience. Many of the plays I read are damn good; yet many of them will miss out.
Believe me…I’d so much rather write “Congratulations!” than “Unfortunately.” Just as I’d much rather receive it.
Image: Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica
The Inflexible Dynamo Rides Again! 
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