Greenfield, Joseph (American playwright, retired, 1930-____), “Sorry, Bill,”
a 10-minute comedic monolog in English, set in a play producer's office, 1999,
1m,
© 1999 by Joseph Greenfield, script/rights available from Joseph Greenfield, telephone (home) 215-953-0875. Cited by Joseph Greenfield, via ftp January 4, 1999; Greenfield says,
Dramatis Persona Sam Rumplestein (m), a play producer.
Synopsis “Sam Rumplestein, a play producer in need of a musical,
has just received the
script of Hamlet. Bill (William Shakespeare), in dire need
of money, calls Sam to ask about it. Sam disparages every part of the play.
He says it is unproducible, too many acts, too many scenes, too large a
cast, archaic language, bad dialog, etc. Sam suggests that Bill sell some
of his lines to commercial establishments (‘Alas, poor Yorick’ could be
sold to a funeral parlor). Sam also suggests that they make a musical out
of it (spice up the ‘To be or not to be’ soliloquy so that it rhymes and
they can set it to music; bring in a female chorus of girl ghosts, etc.).
Finally Sam agrees to lend Bill some money so he can continue working.
Comment “This play imagines what might happen if Shakespeare’s
Hamlet was just written
yesterday.”
Themes commercialization, dramaturgy, Hamlet, loan,
money, music, musical, production, script, Shakespeare (William Shakespeare,
English poet and dramatist, 1564-1616), theatre.
This Website continues under construction and welcomes new citations and comments.
Page mounted March 30, 1999, by the site Webmaster.
There is
a there there with a correct click.