A reader who is a writer dreams

I am a playwright.

I've also been a play reader. (Three years at the Public - among other places.)

Last night I had a dream that floated through both these worlds.

I dreamt of all the plays I'd read that I liked and had sent up the food chain eventhough they weren't appropriate for the places I was working. I dreamt of all the plays other readers told me about that they'd sent up the food chains of their theatres even though it made no sense for those places. I dreamt of all the good plays sent out by their creators to the wrong theatres where, good as they might have been, they were set aside like forgotten toys.

And then I dreamt that all the reader reports for these "good - but not here or now" plays were put into a giant database accessible to any literary department anywhere so that perhaps theatres could find what they needed and plays found the homes they deserved.

I dreamt, that readers everywhere added their own favorites (never negative reports since what good would that do) to this growing pool so there was a beautiful organic body of shared knowledge of plays that were good.

It was a good dream.

*****
PS. I once worked at a bookstore (Stuart Brent on Michigan Avenue) where the owner kept books in stock that didn't sell. I asked why. "The person who this book was written for just hasn't come in yet. But they will," he said. "Now go stock the poetry section."