The Many Breasted Diana Has A Hard Time Saying No
I enjoyed reading this post from Bitter Gertrude about her blog post: Why Your Play Was Rejected.
I like this kind of smart, mouthy humor. But then again…..(this section is from her post):
“Luckily for you, you live in the WORLD OF TOMORROW, where submitting a play is as easy as hitting “send.” Take a moment to think of the poor playwrights of yesteryear (15 years ago) who were copying out scripts at work when their supervisors were in a meeting and having to mail them out to theatres at $2.50 a pop if they didn’t work in a company with a mailroom (I remember getting submissions from Lehman Brothers regularly). The flip side of the newfound ease of the submission process is that we’re all getting hundreds and hundreds of scripts, all the time. Even if your script is fantastic, is it better for THAT THEATRE at THAT MOMENT than the other 412 the theatre will get that year? Maybe the AD has done three comedy-heavy seasons and is considering moving to a more drama-heavy season the next year. Maybe the theatre is hoping to work with a specific director and looking for scripts that will appeal to her. Or perhaps this director is already involved in the selection process. Maybe this director had a recent personal experience that increases her interest in a certain topic, and although your play is just as awesome, the play submitted right after yours is about exactly that topic. The point is: You don’t know. The variables are endless, and the competition is just insane. When I’m in season planning season (ha) in Dec/Jan, I’ll sit at my computer and open file after file after file, reading plays for hours every single day. I don’t even glance at the name of the playwright or the title of the work unless I’m already interested in moving it up to my contenders file, or if I’m sending an email to my LM indicating which ones to reject. It’s truly crazy how many plays we get, and we’re the smallest dog on the block.”
I guess I don’t live in the World of Tomorrow, where submitting my play is as easy as hitting the send button.
I live in a world where I carefully consider what I am writing and who and where the play belongs. And that does mean that the rejection of my play does seem personal, and costly and difficult.
But I also know that I hate disappointing people, that I have a hard time saying no to someone I like/respect/want to succeed. So I’m glad I don’t have the job of being Bitter Gertrude.
