What if they gave a contest and nobody came – not many people anyway. This recently happened twice in Lake County but the reaction by the organizers was very different in the two cases.

In 2008 the nationally organized “Poetry Out Loud” competition was promoted in Lake County. Poet Laureate Sandra Wade and Lorna Sides circulated the promotional materials throughout our local schools and waited for the enthusiastic students to line up at the announced venues. It was a no show, except for one person. So they had their contest and declared our county winner and sent her off as the Lake County rep to the state level. The local organizers were just a little vague on the level of participation.

There was never a question about following through with the contest. The participant showed up and performed well. That was all that was required. There was no requirement that other students show up. She gained useful experience at the state semifinals while making valuable contacts. Lake County made the cut as a player for showing up also. The publicity encouraged a fuller participation by students this year, with a selection made at an Arts Council event.

As this year brought a successful second year to the “Poetry Out Loud” recitation competition after building on the first year, another contest was sailing into uncharted waters. The regionally advertised “Dream Weaver” playwriting contest was to be run by two Lake County Theater actors in their spare time. This was nothing like a previous playwriting contest promoted nationally with many volunteers. The subject matter was wide open with only technical constraints officially listed.

I saw this as an opportunity to write my first full length play, moving up from skits and short plays. Unlike writers outside the county, I knew something of the judging milieu. The theater board that would anoint a winner tends to favor producing light faire while recoiling from anything with a whiff of avant-garde.

With eyes wide open, I submitted my play “Yellowgrease” with the belief that it would win and be produced only if it were the only functional play before the judges. As this was the first half-hearted year of a regional contest, I knew this was a small but real possibility.

A month after the submission deadline the board took up the contest as an agenda item at their meeting. There was no announcement about what was decided after a week. A month passed – nothing. They did mail their planned upcoming season program but there was no mention of a play from the Dream Weaver contest or even that such a contest ever existed.

Finally, on May 26, one of the two reviewing actors called me because she thought I shouldn’t be left hanging any longer. The verdict was that there were only two functional plays entered that could be produced. Mine was one of them but there was no way they were going to produce it. It was good enough but good enough wasn’t good enough. It was … straaange, and Lake County Theater doesn’t like “strange.” Their solution was to cancel the contest for “lack of participation” without even notifying the contest entrants in writing that there would be no winner and no production. (Contest? What contest? I don’t remember a contest.) I feel those writers who sent in plays in good faith deserve to be treated better. In fact, I would describe the board’s behavior as “artless.”

So what should have been done? At minimum, if they decided that small town economics and values would absolutely prohibit producing the winning play they could have approached the winning playwright thusly:

“All right Shakespeare, you caught us. We gambled that we would get a good romantic comedy or murder mystery in the stack but it didn’t happen. We got you instead. So now you know that this theater community is not open to all types of theater as we led everyone to believe. In many ways we are a much smaller place. Now we have to deal. You want to be the winner? Fine. You’re the winner. Put it on your resume. We’ll alert the media. But we need an out. We will say that we couldn’t find a director that wanted to direct it or not enough actors auditioned for the parts. Since the prize money was coming out of ticket sales, which we won’t have, we will credit you as a life member in our theater company instead. Good luck shopping your play in the big city.”

See how easy it could have been? Apparently the goodwill of local writers is not something the Lake County Theater Co. values very highly. So be it. I will be signing up with online services for playwrights anyway. However, I will require that future contests by LCTC fully disclose their genre limitations to prospective entrants or I will.

Dante DeAmicis lives in Clearlake. To see an outtake from his play, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ND0IMcl9BA.