The SASE

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'I'm no good at all at coming up with an original idea. I can recognize it. That's my talent. Anyone who thinks they know what the public wants is an idiot. I'm still surprised and delighted the public likes what I like. I produce absolutely for myself.'

-- Cameron Mackintosh

The SASE is a Self-Addressed Stamped Envelope. They're an essential part of this business if you hope to get scripts returned or requests to see your work from Literary Managers, and guidelines for Competitions.

A full-length play normally needs a 9.5" x 12.5" envelope for safe mailing to a theatre or competition.

Fold the SASE in half the long way and staple it inside the back cover of the script. This way, it won't get lost in the months your play will float around a Literary Manager's domain.
Most scripts of 90 or more pages will need Priority Mail postage on the SASE. Have your script weighed at the Post Office to be sure about how much you'll need both ways. Theatres don't appreciate getting scripts with postage due on them.

Mail your scripts at a Post Office. Or call to see if there are postal security restrictions in effect in the USA that may prohibit mailing a package over 1 pound -- that's your basic submission package with only an 80-page script -- from your corner mailbox even if you have the right postage on the envelope.
For requesting submission guidelines from theatres and competition sponsors, a standard 9.5" x 4" business envelope is ample with a First Class stamp.

An SASE won't do you any good if you're sending a script to one of the few Competitions having guidelines saying they won't return it. Refusing to return scripts doesn't say much for their attitude toward playwrights. But no nefarious plots may be afoot either. These folks might have just strained a lot of backs lugging anywhere from 400 to 1,200 pounds of scripts to the local post office every year. And they may not have the staff or enough volunteers to stuff all those scripts back in SASEs. Have pity, but not much.

The practical response is not to rule out Competitions that refuse to return scripts even if you send an SASE . . .

The only real reason -- other than sentimental ones -- to get scripts back is to send them off again to another Competition or Regional Theatre. Most of the time, between being thumbed by readers and slammed around at the post office, they'll be banged up so badly by the time you get them back that they won't be unusable without a lot of cosmetic tinkering.

A rule without exceptions . . . You don't want the condition of your script to be so ratty that it telegraphs to the next place you send it that it's just been rejected by some other theatre.

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