Happy Endings

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > SHAPE > DIAGRAM > RESOLUTION > HAPPY END

'. . . people come to the theatre to be told the truth. I think that's where theatre's future lies. Whether they know it or not, people will continue to see theatre at its best as a place where the idiosyncratic voices of American dramatists can speak to them in a way which cannot happen in any other medium -- not in cinema, not on television.'

-- John Weidman

Happy Endings are the perfect caboose for pure comedies. There're not a lot of these things churned out anymore in the theatre. They don't fit well on the ends of those Serio-comedies most playwrights are creating today.

You can guess where you'll find these. Now, that's something everybody in Hollywood loves, along with Wolfgang Puck's pizzas. Just one more point where playwrights have a freedom Screenwriters can only dream of.

Here's a Rule with no exceptions . . .

Endings need to grow organically out of the conflict and characters of your play.

Forget about what you think audiences would want. Or Literary Managers. Or Critics. Or your Significant Other. Or what Aunt Minnie and Uncle Bert will think if they see your play with the ending you know in your gut is right.

The place for Happy Endings is Hollywood, not the nation's Regional Theatres. Now, there's nothing wrong -- and in fact everything good -- about a Happy Ending if that's the logical outcome of your story. But Happy Endings are usually fake endings forced onto the end of plays that logically can't support them. Unfortunately, about half the time that's the fate of plays adapted by major Hollywood film studios.

Grafting Happy Endings onto film versions of complex plays conveniently demolishes the Theme. That's often the goal. And the same thing happens if you do this to yourself before Hollywood even gets a chance to meddle.

Classic examples of this process in film . . .

Mark Medoff's CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD
In the film version: Our couple is reunited, just like in those old Doris Day films Ross Hunter produced.
Charles Fuller's A SOLDIER'S PLAY
In the film version: They all go marching proudly off to the glory of war.

In Fuller's case, you can at least argue that he turned his play into a great What-Happens-Next tale, something Film thrives on. Read the scripts, then rent the videos. It's an education of sorts. And they both did it to themselves.

The moral is, take the $250,000 or so you'll get for your script, hold your nose, and use the bucks to support your playwriting habit. Or wait until you have David Mamet's power. Or go with an independent producer and trade cash for control of your words. That's what Wendy Wasserstein did with THE HEIDI CHRONICLES. And Marsha Norman.

You probably won't be your Agent's best friend after taking the high road. But $250K doesn't go as far as it used to [especially after your agent gets 10%]. And it's an awfully cheap price for the soul of your play.

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