"THE LIFE OF A PLAYWRIGHT IS ONE ANGST AFTER ANOTHER."
MR. WILLIAM SHAKEASPEAR
FLAT "C"
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
Dear Willy,
Surely by now I should be used to receiving negative news but the truth is, it r gets easier. Mind you the producer did indicate that he found it had "a particular charm" whatever that means, but the bottom line is that it's not part of their upcoming season. According to the producer there was a fire in the theater, which caused a flood. I'm not quite sure what this had to do with my play...perhaps it got washed away... Maybe the pages got separated...
Go know! It's all speculation in the end, anyway.
Thing is, Willy, I had high hopes for that play but then don't we all? It took six whole months for them to finally reject it and I envisioned the play being read by the selection committee with everyone laughing at the right places.
"This is one of the funniest plays we've read in a long time," Mr. Big Bucks Who Funds Theaters might have commented.
"Absolutely agree, " the producer most likely jumped in, anxious to please Mr. Big Bucks in order to get funding.
"Do we know this playwright?" Mr. Big Bucks could have probed further. "I'm not familiar with her name."
"She's new on the theater scene but a very talented playwright," the producer could have responded while desperately checking my pedigree through the personal information blurb.
"Unknown, huh?" Mr. Big Bucks most likely said while shaking his head. "Perhaps we should stick with a well-known play that's been performed more than a hundred-thousand times in every major theater accross the country. You know - an instantly recognizable play."
"Yes - yes of course - you're right as usual!" the producer most likely jumped in. "Lets do go with a known play! But then don't we always?"
So there you have it, Willy. Rejection once again.
I'll try to write to you more often and perhaps some day we'll actually meet in person and sit down for a cappucino and a biscotti. Upon further thought...you probably prefer tea and a crumpet, don't you?
Do drop me a line and tell me what's happening at your end. By the way have you found a means in which to solve the costume problem regarding the female roles? I have a suggestion you may think is a bit unorthodox but perhaps consider having the male actors assume the female roles?
We live in hope, right? Meanwhile, have an ale on me. Okay? Maybe two.
Your friend in playwriting,
Eleanor
1 comment:
Mistress Eleanor
Ah! what a stirred world we live in, yea verily.
A curse, nay, a pox on those who have rejected your play. with thy quill poised why dost thou not reply using choice phrases: "What knowest thou about dramatic art, thou loser" or, May the plague strike thy box office and a thousand Spanish fleas, laugh thy play and actors off stage."
Ah! 'tis April and spring. Surely a young man's fancy turns to things other than plays - mayhap that is what has happened to thy Laval or Mount Royal producers. Their heads are filled with fancy and thus they cannot think straight. I have trudged that's trudge-ed) the streets of London to speak to these merchants of theatre.
Of they reply: "Nay! 'tis not the season. Forsooth hath we not told thee that teenage love is out, this season." What hurteth me the most, was the rejection of my idea of a Scottish man- who was three potatoes short of a pancake - trying to claim the throne of Scotland. Yea! I didst throw in a couple of 'och ayes', and Macs to add authenticity.
These Phillistines, these cohorts of hell's minions had the temerity to say: "Master Will, thy effort would be laugh-ed out of Glasgow and Edinburgh and no true Englishman would want to see anothe regal takeover, given what this wench Mary tried to do to our good Queen Bess. Nay! Master Will, write thee a play perhaps of Good King Henry - the eight of them, or put thy quill to poetry, it is, forsooth, a wench magnet."
Ah! one could go on all the livelong day about the frustration of writing good drama. Mayhap I quit England and hie to France or Italy.
Please keep me informed as to thy endeavours
Fondly
Willie
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