"READ, CONNECT, WRITE"

David Wiltse

First of all, read.  Read every play you can get your hands on. Hang out at your library and you can acquire a fair understanding of the millenia old history of the theater, at your leisure, and it won't cost you a thing. You will also learn the essence of the plays, the written text.  Productions vary widely and you can be easily misled by directorial flourishes and flashy (or incompetent) actors but on the page the work is laid bare for you to see without costume, makeup or artifice. It is on the page that you can learn structure and characterization and dialogue.  At its heart the play is a literary creation and it is in its literary form that it will be seen first by potential producers, and in its literary form that it will live beyond its first few years of life.

Secondly, connect yourself in any way that you can to a theater company. Ingratiate yourself with everyone in the theater world to whom you have access, be it in person, via email, or any other way you can devise.  The sad fact is that although the play is a literary form, very few people who make choices can actually read plays properly.  They do not necessarily know when they have a good one in their hands–and they have read so many bad ones that they are often reluctant to read one at all.  They rely, instead, on the opinions of others.  They love the brand name authors, often regardless of the actual product. They respond to the fact that another theater has done the play first. They fear the unknown and untested and prefer the work of someone they have met, someone recommended by a colleague. All too often the play itself is the least of the considerations so it is important for you to play the part of the political animal to the hilt. Befriend everyone and, even more important, make no enemies. All of this has nothing to do with play writing, of course, but rather play producing, and an unproduced play is a useless thing indeed.

Somewhere in there you should probably write a play or two, also. It's not the easy part, but you'll never lack for people who are willing to tell you how. Most of their opinions will be wrong, so be polite and thank them kindly and promise to take their suggestions under consideration. But if someone mentions something that you yourself were aware of, a weakness that you thought you had disguised or finessed, pay attention and fix it. There is no such thing as a perfect play, it has never been written, but struggle to make yours as good as you can. Not just good enough to fool most of the people most of the time, but good enough to fool yourself.

Click here to visit David Wiltse's website, where you can get in touch with the playwright and find out more about him and his work.