Why bad things had to happen to Bill O'Reilly

I'm realizing now I probably should have featured the link to Fair Use Press's synopsis written for the press kit more prominently earlier, as it contains the best explanation of and justification for the play. Natalie Davis realized this and made use of it on her very nice blog entry on Fair & Balanced. It is very, very satisfying to be understood. Thanks, Natalie.

Reviews:

First review not from a longtime friend came in earlier tonight, and it made me feel very good. John P. Hoke, a blogger who I link to sometimes here at BFW, emailed me with:

That play made my night... I am stuck in a hotel on a consulting gig and was bored out of my mind till I read this, now I can't stop laughing or get the image of {plot spoiler deleted} outta my mind (you are evil for that!).

Can't think of a better review I could have hoped for. Poor John, trapped in that hotel room, with the image of {plot spoiler deleted} seared into his brain. This is why I do what I do.

More blogthanks:

Link thanks to fubar at Clowntech, who, btw, created a great set of pages that lay out the whole Franken/O'Reilly book-expo flap in words and screenshot pictures.

Film rights to Fair & Balanced

I am toying with the idea of dedicating the film rights to Fair & Balanced to the public domain, if such a selective thing could be done. That way anyone could make a film out of the play and distribute it. This might not have been practical back when movies cost so much to make, but nowadays it's cheap to make a movie. For Fair & Balanced, just get four good actors, a DV camera, a good microphone and a dungeon, and start filmmaking. Could be a good rite of passage for film students. Have you shot your Fair & Balanced yet?

Because it's a shortish play, people could put together compilations of three or four versions of it on DVD. People already watch movies over and over on DVD with the alternate commentaries. Why not watch three or four entirely different interpretations of a work, with different directors and casts?

There's a weird difference between film and theater in this way. A play gets produced over and over by different companies, different directors, different casts. But for some reason a remake of a movie is a relatively rare thing. Almost always there is just one exclusive interpretation of any given film script, at least for a couple of decades at a time. Now that the power to make a movie is not concentrated in just a few hands, and the cost is not outrageously high, this mindset toward movie rights might not be as relevant. It's actually cheaper to make a guerilla movie than it is to put on a play at a typical regional theater.

Of course, this idea would require that somebody actually make these films. I would feel dumb if I opened up the film rights and then nobody came to the party. Might be a chicken and egg thing, though.