A playwright in angst over his legitimacy writes:<\/p>\n
1)<\/span> And why must one only get money from the theatre to count as a playwright? 2) <\/span>Is it somehow sinful to write for television or film and earn paychecks as well? 3) <\/span>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?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
A parable of sorts.<\/p>\n
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)<\/span> Does my divorce settlement count as earning a living from being a playwright?<\/p>\n
5)<\/span> Was it theatre or the actress that broke my heart? No matter. I left theatre;
\nI became a poet. No chance to parlay my words into a paycheck from there.<\/p>\nMy success lives and dies nowhere now but within the words, the poem I wright. Finally, I have become a playwright, again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n