Submission 138 / Day 136

REVOLUTION to State of Play Theatre (NYC)

REVOLUTION hasn't received many submissions because, although it is arguably my best play and unarguably my most amibtious, it is at odds in many ways with current aesthetic orthodoxies and, more importantly, with certain economic imperatives.

Aesthetically, REVOLUTION is a plot-driven play at a time when character-driven plays are far more popular. The dialogue is consciously heightened at a time when realism is the rule of the day. And the play is set in 1930's Spain during the Spanish Civil War, an event of immense cultural and political importance in its time, but which is largely without meaning to people today. That makes REVOLUTION a "period piece" . . . a designation that automatically disqualfies a play in the minds of many artistic directors. And it's in three acts. Did you know they once made plays that way?

These issues are more ones of fashion than they are of substance, but when it comes to the marketplace, fashion matters and, when the issue comes down to an artistic director's simple binary judgment -- yes, I'll produce it or no, I won't -- any one of these characteristics is enough to spell doom.

Then, there is the economic problem. REVOLUTION has twenty-three speaking roles and, even with doubling, requires 15 actors or, more to the point, 15 people who must be paid from a house that seats no more for a play of this size than it does for a simple two-hander. When Heather Helinsky at Pittsburgh Public invited me to submit the script, I warned her that REVOLUTION is "big" both dramatically and financially. She replied confidently that Pittsburgh Public can handle big plays -- right now they're mounting a production with ten actors and an in-ground pool. So, I guess this submission will put to the test the question of which costs more, five additional actors or a temporary home for Flipper?