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What does an artist DO anyway? Obviously, they create art. In my case, as a playwright, I write plays. But any artist will tell you that creating the art (writing the plays) is only half the battle. The next step is getting someone interested in looking at your art (producing your play). Everyone has an opinion on how to do that, and while there are some general guidelines and resources, there are no hard and fast rules to “getting noticed”. The last decade has been a baptism by fire of me writing and then doing whatever had to be done to get the attention of prospective theatres. (Within reason, of course, I love my art, but I’m quite fond of my soul and would rather not part with it.) About a year ago, I thought I had come up with a genius plan, and dove headfirst into setting it in motion. I was going to host a virtual pitch meeting for three of my plays and invite EVERY theatre company that I could think of to join. And when I say every theatre company, I mean it. I am not exaggerating when I say that I sent out at five hundred emails, all with the same message: I’m a playwright, I’m going this reading of short scenes from three of my plays (The Cafe Mocha Murders, Leannán Sidhe, and Dancing With Hamlet), here’s a synopsis of them, here’s the Zoom link, join me on October 14th, okay bye! It became sort of a part time job for me to scour the internet looking for theatres that looked like they could potentially produce something of mine. I looked up theatres in every US state and territory and even reached out to some UK and Australian companies. The thought process was, “It’s a virtual reading so, theoretically, anyone can attend!” Even before the reading, I was running into some snags. 90 percent of people did not respond to my invitations…but just because they didn’t didn’t respond didn’t mean that they wouldn’t attend, right? Those who did get back to me almost always declined the invite or outright told me, “This is not how we do business. Please contact your agent and have them send your submissions through the proper channels.” (For the record, I don’t have an agent.) I cannot overstate how hard I worked at sending these emails and the hours that went into researching theatres. The day of the reading came! My actors had their scripts, I had my Zoom subscription renewed, I opened the virtual door to let all the virtual people in and…three people attended. Three people showed up to the reading, and they were all friends, no one who represents a theatre company. (While I love my friends and cherish their support, they were not the target audience; the idea was to get theatre companies to attend…companies that could potentially produce my shows.) I was pretty devastated and felt incredibly stupid. Obviously, this had not been the right route to take and I probably just came off as another loud-mouth playwright hocking my script onto someone. The talk-back session was more brainstorming WHY people didn’t attend rather than discussing the scripts or potential productions. (Our biggest theories were that people are just sick of virtual events given the pandemic, that theatres would rather read a script than have to attend something, and that many companies don’t respond well to cold emails. “Don’t call us. We’ll call you” kind of mentality.) I licked my wounds, tried to take my friends’ suggestions to heart, and chalked it all up to experience. I had tried and I had failed, but at least I had tried. Several months passed with me trying to put some distance between myself that disconcerting night. In January, though, I received an email from someone at the Network Theatre in London. They had received my email about the reading back in October and while they had been unable to attend, they thoroughly enjoyed the sample I’d sent along of The Cafe Mocha Murders. (They very politely said, “I hope the reading was well-attended!” Hah!) Furthermore, they wanted to purchase the full script. I sold them a copy and before you knew it, they were asking about purchasing the rights to it. So it’s happening: this December, The Cafe Mocha Murders by yours truly at a genuine theatre in LONDON! I have not seen a production of the show since its world premiere back in 2022 in California, and I am over the moon that I’ll get to see it this time around (did I mention it’s in LONDON!?) I was dumbfounded: something good actually came out of this embarrassing night that had left me feeling like an idiot. I don’t think I’ll be in any kind of rush to do another virtual staged reading, but I take this as a great reminder that you never know what will happen in life or what kind of connections you’ll make, even in the face of failure. It sounds incredibly cheesy to write this, but the truth of the matter is that this theatre probably would know who I am or any of my works had it not been for this dismal miscalculation. You have to try and fail in order to figure things out. No one is given the rulebook on how to make art or how to get your art out there. Five-hundred (plus) theatres said no, but then one said yes. And here we are. Furthermore, it is my ultimate dream to see one of my shows produced at The National Theatre in London and The Network Theatre is located just down the road from them. I’ve learned a lot about cold emails, but I think I may have to try just one more time and see if I can’t get someone from The National Theatre to come on over and see what my work is all about. Who knows? Could be awful. Could be great.  Want to help support me and my writing endeavors?
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