How to Market a Shakespearean-Type Play?

Cafe Society
1

For an Acting class assignment, I wrote a tragedy play written in a style similar to a Shakespearean-type play, with iambic pentameter, the flowery language, and elements of Ancient Roman theatrical drama.

I got many compliments about it and was wondering if there was anything I could do with it. Should I try to market it? How? And who would be interested in something like that? Should I publish it and through what means and what type of publisher?

Thanks for the help…

2

If you’re interested only in publishing the play, submit it to local literary magazines, preferably after one or more rewrites. Your play will be better if you use books like Egri’s *The Art of Dramatic Writing * or Grebanier’s Playwriting to guide your rewrite. There are also playwriting contests you can enter. A good site for playwrights:

http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/playwriting/seminar.html

If you aim to profit from the play, you are in the the realm of the professional dramatist. The standard advice to aspiring professional playwrights is, put your first play away, and immediately get to work on your next one. Write five plays, with appropriate guidance from instruction books, knowledgeable teachers, actors and other theater people. Plan on getting the fifth play produced, sold etc.

Of course, writing a set number of plays doesn’t guarrantee that your work will be ready for production in the professional theater. It’s possible that your first play is ready. It’s just not very likely. Most first plays suck.

There are professional dramatists who currently write plays in the linguistic and stylistic conventions of earlier eras - the Elizabethan (Shakespeare), the Restoration (Congreve et al) etc. for production at at festivals and repertory companies alongside classic plays. These dramatists are lit professors, critics, screenwriters, playwrights who normally work in contemporary genres. In short, professional men and women of letters. If you want to market your play, these folks are your competition, and the venues where they show their works are likely to be your venues as well.

3

Since this is about the threater, I’ll move this thread to our arts forum, Cafe Society.

bibliophage
moderator GQ