Posted by Macbee at acb482ee.ipt.aol.com on September 07, 2001 at 01:29:36:
To Kevin and the Gang at View Askiew,
Let me just begin by saying I'm a huge fan of View Askiew, I'm always first in line @ your movies and I drag everyone I know to go check them out, I own all the movies on DVD and love listening to the hilarious commentary. Oh, my girlfriend also sends her regards.
The reason for this posting is because I've always wanted to ask Kevin, if he's ever been interested in writing for theatre? I realize he has his hands full with the comics and movies and various producing chores but THE THEATRE NEEDS HIM!!!!!!!!!! I can't tell you how many freaking times I've sat in my acting classes and seen actors do a scene from one of your movies in class. The result is always the same, the writing makes the actors look great, and the nieve "theatre" based teacher asks "where did you get this incredible material?"
Allow me to illustrate some of the benefits of doing theatre. 1. The theatre needs fresh new voices and the critics will love your work. All the great writers are becoming screenwriters, Mamet, Pinter, even Arthur Miller. I realize the need to reach a larger audience, but let's not abandon an integral part of the arts, the difference between theatre and movies is like watching a live concert and listening to a cd in your room. YOU CAN'T BEAT THE REAL THING. Kevin Smith's work has always been dialoge driven, that's exactly what theatre is. IT'S A PERFECT MATCH. Theatre audiences and critics are a tougher bunch, than most movie audiences and movie critic pussies and they tend to be more considerate of the whole artisitic process. NO WAY would the theatre community even blink at the so called controversial material of Dogma, The Play "Corpus Christi" alleges that Jesus was GAY.(There's tons of crazy shit like that in the theatre world.) Dogma was kid's play in terms of potential controversy. 2.) You can make money off royalties to produce more great movies. If you write a play I guarantee local theatres would eat it up, a play by Kevin Smith? I can see the lines already, if friggin "the Producers" can tear up Broadway don't tell me an adaption of one of your movies couldn't.(Don't make a musical, WE NEED PLAYS) Clerks would be perfect. You'd hardly have to change a thing, just some creative, alternative staging and you'd have it.
3.) You'd open the theatre to an audience it desperately needs. People see theatre as a bunch of elitist, boring, stuffed shirts. Shakespeare wrote plays for the groundlings, not the royalty. Why is it different now? You could change all that. Durang, Neil Simon, Niky Silver, these are the premiere comic writers in theatre right now, that's all we have, we need someone to represent this generation and Kevin can be that man.
I'm not saying you should abandon movies and join theatre, I just think you can build a little View Askiew theatrical country to add to the View Askiew universe.
Keep up the great work and I hope to hear from you soon. The Theatre needs you.