How to Send Query Letters for a Play Script

Video Transcript

"STEVE CAVERNO: Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village, here today to talk to you about formatting and play production. Alright, now we're going to talk about a query letter. A query letter, as we're talking about marketing, is a marketing tool. This is what you'd send out to a production company or a literary manager or artistic director to get them interested in your play. Some production companies or publishing companies take query letters, some do not; sometimes you got to go through another method. But if you do find a production company that will take a query letter, then this is how you would do one. Let's just say William Shakespeare was alive today and he was submitting his play Hamlet for a production. What he would do is he would write his name up here on the corner, William Shakespeare, Stratford-upon-Avon, England, phone number, and then he would write his e-mail address, let's say Will@Shakespeare.com. And then, you come down here, write the date, write the literary manager's name, then the literary manager's title, Elizabethan Productions and then the address and the city, say it's in New York, and then start this off. Start it off at the title. You don't want to just say, "Dear sir, dear ma'am." You want to get to know that literary manager's title. So it might take some research but it will pay off. If you don't know the manager's title--if you know the manager's title, that will kind of impress him a little bit, so that's a good thing to know. Okay, now here's William Shakespeare's query letter. William Shakespeare could probably write a much better query letter than I could, so you're just going to have to suspend your disbelief here which is a part of playwriting. "Hamlet is a completed five act revenge play set in Denmark. It would be ideal for production in regional theatre and college campuses. The death of his father left Hamlet in emotional despair. When Hamlet's father's ghost returns from the grave and reveals his brother, Claudius, Hamlet's uncle was responsible for the death, Hamlet resolves to stop at nothing to take revenge upon his uncle and restore justice to Denmark." So basically, that's just a small synopsis. First off, it starts off listing a market for the play, and then it just gives a brief description, and then it goes into a synopsis of the play, and then we go into a little bit of experience with the play. "The play has been previously performed at stage readings at the Globe theatre in England and has also has been produced in every theater in the known world." Now, I mean obviously you won't have that to say to your query letter but William Shakespeare probably would. And then, you'll just basically give 'em, you know, a nice ending. So you'll say, "If you're interested, I'll gladly send you other select portions of this play or the complete manuscript. I have enclosed a synopsis and a self-addressed stamped envelope." You can just say SASE--it's common knowledge--for your reply. If you prefer, you can send an e-mail. "Thanks very much for your time and consideration. Sincerely, William Shakespeare." So this is how William Shakespeare might pitch Hamlet to a literary producer or an artistic director. Basically, keep it succinct, keep it professional. Don't say, "Oh, I wrote this play. It's the best play ever." And don't say things that really aren't to the point; you really want to try to keep your stuff to the point. This is kind of a weeding out process, so when you submit to an editor or if you submit to a publisher, you really want to have all these stuff as professional as possible."