Making Contacts II

The major problem I encounter getting my work produced is making the right contacts. I’ve had a lot of success at getting amateurs to give them a go – but that’s mostly because I have acted with them and they know what I’m about.

But I’m trying to make that leap across to professional productions. Last year I thought I had a huge break when I was offered a part in a new Sci-Fi TV series, but it came to nothing when I lost the part on ‘politically-correct’ grounds. I thought that with an Equity card, people would take me far more seriously, especially when you looked at the people I was going to be acting alongside (not Hollywood A-List, but the majority of the cast are very well known).

I even had the opportunities that acting in Susan Ellis Sanford’s Excalibur. Sue has a lot of contacts in theatre (being a professional herself) and they came to see the run at Titchfield Abbey. But again, I didn’t make any huge headway here (and most likely, wholly appropriate as it was Sue’s writing under examination here, not mine).

Come November 2004, I was starting to get a little depressed. Everywhere I turned, nothing was forthcoming.

Then there were the Curtain Call Awards. I was on such a high! I wanted everyone to know my news and start to take me seriously as a playwright. I posted a note on Writers.Net to see if my fellow writers thought it was a good idea to contact agents to whom I had submitted DENIM and tell them about the win. They said it couldn’t do any harm… so I did. The result…? Nothing. Not even a photocopied reply.

That’s that then. No contacts. No likeyhood of getting a professional production. Where could I turn?

After I had included extracts of my plays as PDFs on the website, I posted a message on The Playwrights’ Forum asking other playwrights what they thought of my site and if they thought they were of any use. On of the users paid me a number of compliments and stated that they wanted to pinch a couple of my ideas for their own site. This prompted me to have a look over his site.

He wanted to pinch my ideas! His site is stunning! I shoved him a quick email saying that I was stunned that someone with a site as professional as his would want to take any of my formatting ideas. I got an email back telling me what he wanted to copy and also pointed out that he was a professional playwright, had his own production company and had recently had one of his plays produced off-West End with great critical acclaim.

Then came the sentence that stopped me in my tracks… He offered to read one of my plays! An Off West End professional playwright was offering to read one of my plays that have only been shown to amateur audiences. Needless to say, it was winging its electronic way to him within minutes. He’s reading it at the moment, so I’ll let you know what he thought once I get his reply.
Why haven’t I named him…? Why haven’t I placed a link to his site…? Well, I haven’t got his permission. I’ll ask him to visit the site and see if he wants to be mentioned.

And before anyone ask, no I don’t expect him to produce my plays… I just hope that I get a useable quote regarding my writing that I can use with other production companies (Okay…!).

On top of that, my boss (in my day job) congratulated me on my win. He then asked if he could have a couple of manuscripts. I thought this a little odd, as why would my boss want to read my plays other than to give me a roasting about not concentrating on my work or having inappropriate views. But no! It turns out that his brother is one of the biggest actors/directors in Northern Ireland. He had mentioned that I wrote plays and would he give me some feedback – and he agreed.
So an envelope stuffed with DENIM and MARK OF A GENTLEMAN was on its way.

Just when I thought that I would never make professional contacts, two come from nowhere and from the most unlikely routes.

Will they come to anything…? Who knows, but they have given me a far more positive outlook.
Here’s hoping.