Drone Zone
The latest news informs us that the POTUS will be personally overseeing and approving every drone strike which occurs in Syria. The American drone policy has been contentious in the world, but not here at home, except among the occasional fringe group. It is now 19 months (and a little more) since I wrote my play Drone Zone, an exploration of the theme, and it is with a bit of irony that I note that that presidential approval was already prognosticated in my play. This would not be the only example of prescience discoverable in one of my plays, and it is a minor one perhaps.
The play has not been staged, and is not likely to. Shortly after its composition I sent it out to a few people to have them look at it, at least two of whom representing Chicago theater companies. By far the usual response from theater companies, even back in the day when bound scripts were submitted with an SASE, is silence, and Drone Zone proved no exception, at least in once case, even after a reminder email six months later.
In the second case, the theater representative invited me to send him other things, and I obliged with an oldie (my one historical play), which drew from him the following rejection—tempered, I suppose, by an effusion of praise or flattery perhaps intended to bring me down gently:
The play has not been staged, and is not likely to. Shortly after its composition I sent it out to a few people to have them look at it, at least two of whom representing Chicago theater companies. By far the usual response from theater companies, even back in the day when bound scripts were submitted with an SASE, is silence, and Drone Zone proved no exception, at least in once case, even after a reminder email six months later.
In the second case, the theater representative invited me to send him other things, and I obliged with an oldie (my one historical play), which drew from him the following rejection—tempered, I suppose, by an effusion of praise or flattery perhaps intended to bring me down gently:
Thanks for sharing your play with us. You clearly have a lot of skill as a playwright, as well as a broad-based grasp of themes. This particular play is nearly Shakespearean and quite beyond our level of capability. We don't do verse because other companies are simply better at it. I'm sure a company with chops to match your heightened language would do this script justice. Thanks again, and I'd be happy to read any drama you'd be willing to share.
My plays are anything but “Shakespearean,” aside from some superficial resemblances in form—but, given that contemporary taste has probably been raised on Tennessee Williams and Edward Albee, if not Arthur Miller, anything in verse is likely to strike today’s mean theatric interlocutor as an oddity.
My play notwithstanding, what is hard to understand is why the lethargy in the staging of works that deal with contemporary matters of political import. You would think somebody would have presented a play dealing with the topic at some time since, but no alternative to Drone Zone has appeared—not in Chicago, nor elsewhere so far as I can determine. As I have written, even my old play regarding the Iraq invasion never got produced, but neither did anyone else’s: not in advance of the event, and not subsequent, I believe.
In Chicago small cast productions about dysfunctional families are all the rage, and perhaps the audience for them is the only one we have. Comedies, traditionally, have showcased a greater breadth than the merely personal; however public issues would seem to hold no appeal to theatergoers today. Possibly they are looking for entertainment: working can be odious, time-consuming and exhausting; a little “kill time” frivolity may be all there is stomach for.
A friend has encouraged me to put Drone Zone up on this website, and I have done so. There is a link to it at my theater page, or you may click to the first act here.
My play notwithstanding, what is hard to understand is why the lethargy in the staging of works that deal with contemporary matters of political import. You would think somebody would have presented a play dealing with the topic at some time since, but no alternative to Drone Zone has appeared—not in Chicago, nor elsewhere so far as I can determine. As I have written, even my old play regarding the Iraq invasion never got produced, but neither did anyone else’s: not in advance of the event, and not subsequent, I believe.
In Chicago small cast productions about dysfunctional families are all the rage, and perhaps the audience for them is the only one we have. Comedies, traditionally, have showcased a greater breadth than the merely personal; however public issues would seem to hold no appeal to theatergoers today. Possibly they are looking for entertainment: working can be odious, time-consuming and exhausting; a little “kill time” frivolity may be all there is stomach for.
A friend has encouraged me to put Drone Zone up on this website, and I have done so. There is a link to it at my theater page, or you may click to the first act here.
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