RAT Unsolicited Scripts . . .

[Audie McCall <audiemccall@yahoo.com>]

. . . are a crappy way to get your plays out there.

Granted.

But for many disenfranchised playwrights, cold submission can seem
like the ONLY way.  (And contrary to the reigning misapprehension,
plays DO get chosen this way, albeit once in a very blue moon.)

I understand that pretty much every theatre, large or small, fat or
rat, has a stack of manila folders stuffed with plays that will barely
get looked at, far less considered for development.  I also understand
that this is inevitable.

But let me suggest one simple, fairly painless thing any theatre with
a commitment to new work might try to help address the problem:  Take
one of those scripts off the shelf.  Make sure it's one whose author's
name rings a bell with no one in your company.  Do a reading of it. 
Do this once or twice a season.  Invite the author.  If he or she
can't come, offer them written feedback after the fact.

Think of it as a form of flossing-- to help fight pesky manila build-up.

A modest program like this, just once or twice a season, could really
go along way to expanding the horizons of both the playwright and
theatre involved.








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