The New York Times: Pity the playwrights. Many of them make so little money, they can’t afford tickets to plays.
Now some of the nation’s leading regional theaters, saying it is essential to the art form that writers see work by their colleagues and predecessors, have a solution: They will offer free last-minute seats to their shows.
Theaters from Atlanta to Seattle have signed on, agreeing to make unsold tickets available, on the day of a performance, to student and professional writers who belong to the Dramatists Guild, a national association of about 7,000 playwrights, composers and lyricists.
2 comments:
I really like the idea of giving playwrights free left over tickets to shows. If playwrights cannot see theatre because they cannot afford it, then they will not be able to see what other writers are doing. They will not be able to see what has been done or a new topic that they could possibly explore and try a new thing with it. Young playwrights are the future of the evolution of theatre. Without new playwrights, we will be stuck with the same plays that are possibly outdated. I really appreciate that people in high positions at big theatre companies realize the importance of exposing playwrights to new work and different shows. The tickets they are giving away would go to waste anyway, so they might as well give them to valuable members of our community who will also be very good audience members. They will also fill the seats more and make the show look even more popular, which could in turn sell more tickets to other people through word of mouth.
What an amazing idea! There really is no theatre without playwrights. Thinking about all the art and beauty that is derived just from the words on a paper makes me shocked about how little we give credit to playwrights. Honestly, when I first started reading this article I was wondering why this idea wasn't spread to other creative disciplines in the theatre world, but then it hit me that playwrights are literally the foundation of what we all do. If we don't have new plays do we just keep redoing and rethinking the old plays of the past? Playwrights are the most essential part of the growth, expansion, and continuation of theatre and I've never taken the times to acknowledge that. I would just like take a moment to thank all of the playwrights out there for taking the risk to tell these new stories, and I'd also like to thank those theatre companies that are investing in the future of our beloved art form. Playwrights really need more credit for what they do, and providing free tickets to them is the very least that we can do.
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