The following is a letter to the Washington Post by the writer of Kit Marlowe, which Studio Theatre is producing. I think it is very interesting.




Wednesday, November 21, 2001; Page A22


In his Nov. 7 review, Nelson Pressley refers to the Studio Theatre's production of my play, "Kit Marlowe," as "rather silly" and says it "doesn't really have a heart." I am writing to say that not only do I agree with Mr. Pressley, but I found his comments to be generous and forgiving in the extreme. What must be pointed out, however, is that Mr. Pressley did not, in fact, review "Kit Marlowe" by David Grimm, but a play that should have been billed: "Kit Marlowe as cut, edited, adapted and rewritten by director Michael Chamberlain, without the permission or knowledge of the author." That would have been a more accurate title to the production.

"Kit Marlowe" premiered last year at the Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival, George C. Wolfe, producer. The Studio Theatre production is its first regional theater production. It is also my first professional production in the District. In trying to pass off its butchered version of my text as "Kit Marlowe" by David Grimm, the Studio Theatre has grossly misrepresented my work to the D.C. theater community, its patrons, staff and critics.

According to the contract that the Studio Theatre undertook with Dramatists Play Service Inc. (the publishers of the play), no cuts or changes may be made to the text without the express approval of the author. Not only did I not give my approval -- I had no knowledge of it. And had I not decided that it might be fun to go down to Washington to see the play, I would probably never have learned of it.

In his production, Michael Chamberlain has gone through my play, scene by scene, cutting out the heart of each one, effectively removing the emotional center of the play and rendering it a nonsensical exercise in posturing and machismo. But not only did he cut dialogue, he added dialogue of his own creation (one of the characters even prattles on in Spanish -- for no apparent reason). And he didn't stop at dialogue -- he invented whole new characters: splitting Sir Francis Walsingham in three -- Sir Francis Walsingham and two "inventions" (listed in the program as Sir Walsingham's Servant, and Sir Walsingham's Bucket Boy -- whatever a Bucket Boy may be).

But all this is not about a writer's wounded pride. It is about the unethical behavior of the Studio Theatre. It is about a professional theater's total disregard for its contractual obligations. It is about shoddy administration and artistic ineptitude. Finally, it is about the paying audience members who buy a ticket, assuming that they will be seeing the play whose title is printed on their program. In presenting this production, the Studio Theatre has cheated and deceived its own patrons.

Shame!

DAVID GRIMM

New York