Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Playwrights Redux

Please click to enlarge.

A playwright we know just got a rejection letter from the prestigious Center Theatre Group in L.A. It said they "receive more than a thousand submissions a year for a handful of production slots..." Pretty bad odds. The odds are even worse if you're black-- not because of any prejudice, but because black theatres are far and few between and most don't have the economic wherewithal to champion new and unproven works. From a financial POV, this is generally true for white theatres too but even more so because few of them can or will cast outside of their repertory (where there are few if any black actors) for their subscribers who are predominantly white.

So, any black man or woman who still wants to be a playwright, go right ahead, but proceed with caution along that dark and twisting road because only a few will make it to the end.

You've been warned.