Five Questions to/from Nick

Five Questions to/from Nick

A playwright in angst over his legitimacy writes:

1) And why must one only get money from the theatre to count as a playwright? 2) Is it somehow sinful to write for television or film and earn paychecks as well? 3) If being a playwright is what led to being hired on a show, then why doesn’t that count as earning a living from being a playwright?

A parable of sorts.

I fell in love and married one of the actresses cast in my first play. During the course of our short marriage, she subsequently became a movie star earning millions of dollars. I once tried to save our relationship by writing a play for her. It was a great play but she had no interest in the art form anymore; she was in film now. She fell in love with one of her movie directors and left me. When we were divorced, my settlement was enough so that I really didn’t need to work anymore. 4) Does my divorce settlement count as earning a living from being a playwright?

5) Was it theatre or the actress that broke my heart? No matter. I left theatre;
I became a poet. No chance to parlay my words into a paycheck from there.

My success lives and dies nowhere now but within the words, the poem I wright. Finally, I have become a playwright, again.

Comments are closed.