Jack Richardson is a playwright from the 1960’s and he had 2 plays that did very well for him:  The Prodigal (which won him a Drama Desk and an Obie Award in 1960) and his follow up play, Gallows Humor.    He was in his mid 20’s at this time and was being compared to the great playwright Edward Albee (another young playwright who was making his mark on the theatre scene).

Jack Richardson died July 1, 2012 and after his early success in the theatre, he tried to make it on Broadway and failed miserably – twice.   He tried out another play in 1968 called As Happy as Kings but at that point the critics stop paying attention and Jack Richardson disappeared from the theatre scene for good.

I bring Jack Richardson up because I am sure there are many Jack Richardsons out there.  Most people, even those in the theatre community, don’t know who he was (I certainly didn’t) and the fact of the matter is there are very few Millers, Mamets or Albees out there who actually do make it.   Jack did keep writing, however, novels, essays and dramatic criticism.  He never gave up the pen.

You need to define what “making it” means.  I have my ups and downs, wanting to sell a script and getting rejection after rejection.  And then I’m reminded today, it really is about the writing; I completed a rough draft of the upcoming Christmas production which will be performed in December.  I wrote for 7 days straight, and averaged around 10 pages day.  This feeling never gets old – seeing an entire story through right to the end because you are creating an entire community – a world.    It is greatly satisfying and it’s why I keep going back to the pen.

Will my work be seen by a larger audience one day?  I hope so.  And there is nothing wrong with hoping.  The key is not to be discouraged by that hope when it doesn’t work out the way you want it to.  In the end, nothing takes away from that deeply satisfying feeling of completing the next script.  Keep the hope in the writing.

A quote, from The Shawshank Redemption, which I recently watched; it’s one of my favourite films:

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”