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Posted: Thu Nov 29th, 2007 03:26 pm |
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I love reading plays and would like to publish a few collections, but since they aren't too mainstream, I wanted to ask fans here - do you really like reading plays or musicals?
What deserves to be published that isn't in print?
I've published some radio scripts, and some Twilight Zone script books, but wonder if there's enough of an audience to start on play books.
Ben Ohmart
http://www.bearmanormedia.com
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in media res
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Posted: Thu Nov 29th, 2007 11:12 pm |
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Ben,
There is little point to reading a musical unless you are producing one. It is a musical! Listen to the album.
I love to read plays, but the market is slim I think for publishers. Pretty much established with French and Dramatists Play Service and a few others. Few people go to Barnes and Noble and say, "I'd like to read a play." There is no real "general Market" for them, There is very little shelf space in a store allocated for them.
Specialty markets maybe. But I wouldn't invest my money into it for general markets. But if you are interested, why not give it a shot. Maybe specialty play collection of some kind assembled under a single idea.
My opinion.
best,
in media resLast edited on Fri Nov 30th, 2007 01:08 pm by in media res
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Will Kemp
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Posted: Sun Mar 23rd, 2008 12:52 am |
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I read lots of plays, but I am very frustrated because I can't afford to buy many. If I REALLY want to read a play badly, I will order one of the $6.00 acting editions from a play publisher. I go to the university and check the new books shelf for plays. I go to the Fine Arts Library there and read plays in American Theatre Magazine.
What if somebody published a softcover magazine with plays in it and marketed it through the Dramatists' Guild or something? How many copies would you need to sell to break even. If I could subscribe to a cheap newsprint book with award winning plays in it, for ex., I would probably subscribe.
When one of Edd's guests in the Green Room mentions a great playwright that he is following, I want very much to read his play. However, sometimes I wait a couple years to read a play. For ex., I kept trying to get a copy of Jane Martin's Flags. I think it is in print now, but for awhile I couldn't find it anywhere.
I CAN'T STAND those annual hardcover books, "The Best Plays of 2008", that show up in my library, because they contain abbreviated versions of new plays. A play is a very compressed work of art to start with. . .how can you abbreviate it?! I often read these books, because they are better than NOTHING, but I detest them.
Also, I used to order books from TCG that contain plays by foreign playwrights. I want to know what playwrights in post-Nazi Germany. The prose writers there are tackling subjects that fascinate me. I want to know what the women in France are writing because French women are such strong writers -- French female directors are putting out some strong films. Russia? Japan? All the other countries: What's GOING ON THERE? I wish somebody would put out a publication that covered the world drama scene, but a cheap one so playwrights could afford it.
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nic
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Posted: Sun Mar 23rd, 2008 04:11 am |
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Agree with everything that inmediares has to say. I try to read a new play every month and constantly look for what is being performed around the world . After all, if I'm a writer I need to know what people are writing. I'm amazed at some of the stuff for younger actors now coming out of the UK.... has the angry feel of the 60's all over again but I'm only getting to read work that has already been produced and published.
Scripts are expensive and the wall of them that I have will probably be of no use to anyone else and when I die my kids will take 'em all to the tip.
I've played with the idea of setting up some sort of electronic publishing business myself and I know that there are some out there but my guess is that business is slow.
The best Nic
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Hugheen
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Posted: Tue Apr 8th, 2008 02:24 am |
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I read the play before I see it and sometime again after the performance.
However, I do it to learn more about playwriting. Generally I don't think too many people would be interested in reading plays, many are rather dull on the page but
the actors bring the script to life. I may be wrong but I don't believe that outside of theater people there is much of a market for it.
regards,
Hugheen
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in media res
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Posted: Tue Apr 8th, 2008 03:07 am |
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There used to be a subscription play Book Club called "Fireside Theatre." They were hard bound volumes of recent successful plays usually out of New York. Many of my friends and I belonged to it. They were wonderful copies. Meant to be on a bookshelf. In a move, one time, I gave them away to a friend to pass on their joy. In a google search, I only find used copies. It must be out of business.
Anyone remember it? It kept theatre-loving people and community theatre people in smaller towns in the hinterlands in touch with the New York theatre, Broadway and off-Broadway. Kind of sweet when I look back on it.
best,
in media res
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Martin H
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Posted: Wed Apr 9th, 2008 10:56 am |
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How exciting a play is on the page depends to some extent on the care taken in the writing. I read a fair number of plays but with most playwrights, I skip the stage directions, at least the long introductory ones that describe scene and setting. I'd only read those at length if I were directing the play in question. Basically I cut to the chase usually, that is the dialogue.
Tom Stoppard's stage directions are consistently readable, but Peter Barnes' are a delight, novelistic in their implications, poetic in their flow, and crucial to following the action. I get the feeling many other writers treat stage directions (which they nevertheless don't seem to want to do without) as necessary fill in, not as part of the flow of the story.
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Will Kemp
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 03:20 am |
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I respectfully disagree with Hugheen that playwrights would not read plays. However, I have no way of knowing. I wish more playwrights would respond to this dialogue and tell us if they do read plays or not.
Apparently the editors of American Theatre think so, because they run a new play every month for people to read. I save all those plays and read them eventually.
Right now I've got to go read "Doubt" again. Even though it won big awards, I still thought it was boring when I read it. However, myh sister-in-law just saw it live at Triad Stage in Greensboro, and she said it was wonderful. She said the actress made it good at the end by transferring the doubts about the male teachier committing abuse to doubts about herself: Maybe she was wrong. . .
I used to think that Coriolanus was dull on the page too. Then my brother saw the film and went around the house imitating Alan Howard insulting the rabble: "Hang 'em!!!" "Fragments" Who would have ever thought that play was so [url=mailto:funny?!@#$]funny?!@#$[/url]
Hey, who did that -- put red ink on those words?
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nic
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 05:04 am |
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I really couldn't believe that writers aren't readers.
I remember many years ago when I lived in a tiny, isolated community in rural Australia the local newsagent ordered Plays and Players for me the then UK bible on current productions. The magazine published a new play in each edition. Imagine reading Edward Bond's Saved within a month or so of its first production and wondering what to make of all that when the only fare in this coutry at that time was English drawing roon farce. You just have to read to see how other people are thinking, my regret is that I can't afford all that I'd like to buy, I admit that I can't see how to turn some of the written word into a visual experience (Sarah Kane) but that's my shortcoming and I'll read and read in the hope of overcoming it.
A lecturer in performance writing I know used to tell his students that if they weren't seeing every production at Melbourne's La Mama then they were wasting his and their time and shouldn't be taking the course. I'd say the same to any serious writer, if you're not reading everything you can get your hands on then how can you claim to be serious about your craft?
The best Nic
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in media res
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Posted: Thu Apr 10th, 2008 07:53 pm |
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I believe it was William Wyler, the movie director/writer when receiving his Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement who said the best advice he ever got was:
"FOR EVERY WORD YOU WRITE, READ 10,000."
best,
in media resLast edited on Thu Apr 10th, 2008 07:53 pm by in media res
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Potabasil
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Posted: Sat Apr 12th, 2008 05:56 pm |
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Read Lettuce & Lovage last week, and when I was telling a friend how wonderful this play was, he went off and ordered it from ABE books.
I think people do read plays, (Especially when one is "Trying" to write one
Potabasil
Last edited on Sat Apr 12th, 2008 05:56 pm by Potabasil
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in media res
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Posted: Sat Apr 12th, 2008 06:46 pm |
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If you just read Lettice and Lovage you will lve this post from Potabasil earlier this week.
It is Maggie Smith in Lettice and Lovage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flEMcrmNo8w
I saw Julie Harris in Lettice and Lovage on national tour in Chicago with Roberta Maxwell and John Horton. it was a brilliant production. So many said it only worked with Maggie Smith, but seeing julie Harris made me realize how great the play itself really is.
best,
in media res
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Potabasil
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Posted: Sat Apr 12th, 2008 08:59 pm |
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In Media
I am Potabasil and I did post that video (LOL)
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in media res
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Posted: Sun Apr 13th, 2008 03:05 pm |
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I was in such a darn rush to get out of the house, I missed that you were the poster!
Well, it will give everyone the chance to enjoy it again!
I mean to say so many people said that it could ONLY work with Maggie Smith.
I also know an actress who performed it in a regional theatre. Audiences loved it.
best,
in media res
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