In previous articles, I've addressed some of these more traditional avenues for scripts.
Today we have the Internet, faxes, cable television, and many other avenues of communications. So let's explore some other methods.
One playwright I know is also a professional chef who has owned restaurants. He has written farcical plays about the restaurant business. Recently, he was featured on a television cooking show, and has come up with ideas for using that exposure to advertise his plays.
During the course of one episode, the host chef mentioned having one of the shows produced there. Now while having an entire play produced on a cooking show has many practical limitations, the possibility of staging a 5 to 10-minute scene from a script could be very possible.
Also, the playwright mentioned to me about including a copy of his cooking video (where he makes several plugs about his plays) with any script queries or submissions he sends out. While this could be good in terms of letting the potential producer or publisher know what additional kinds of advertising are possible, it doesn't necessarily help the bottom line: How good is the script?
A lot of markets have local community access cable television that just about anybody can use to put together a show. Generally, those people need to take classes or have some other affiliation with the station, but with that comes the capability of filming their own shows. I've worked with some of these people writing sketch comedy. With proper sets and costumes, a full-length show could be rehearsed and videotaped, and then broadcast in segments.
The Internet certainly presents possibilities for non-traditional methods. In fact, there are some publishers who prefer scripts be submitted electronically, and include web pages designed specifically for submissions.
Many publishers (and even individual playwrights) offer a sample of their scripts online, generally the first 10 or 15 pages. Potential customers can then read the opening scene and decide if they want to read further, and then order and pay for the rest of the script.
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