Its a hard case of trying to find a needle in a haystack as the notion of Drama has come to mean within educational circles ... as linked with the stage especially in Britain ... the
National Theatre and its great stage ... and I trained at the National Theatre under the
genre of Drama being one day a week at the NT Stage and the rest of the time at
"College" ... and it was all leading to a career in Drama ... Was I going to join
Dame Helen Mirren, Dench, Smith etc., well I would have answered a clear "No" since my whole role was one of being the teacher of drama the interpreter of the great writings of
GB Shaw Oscar Wilde Harold Pinter Noel Coward, William Shakespeare, Samuel Becket Bertolt Brecht, etc., and some modern writers in Drama i.e. Tom Stoppard, Alan Bennett.
Listening as I do during the afternoon after my author''s walk to BBC Radio I tuned into Alan Bennett who was reading his own work .. and its interesting to discover that this dramatist
still "reads" his own stuff!. I was recently requested to "pay up" for others of a greater
standing than my small self in America, .. I am resident in the UK ... to read my "stuff" i.e. Poetry .... but I took a leaf out of Alan Bennett''s book and I replied sweetly that "I read my own work" and have done so regularly since I started writing plays and poems and short stories over 10 years ago. I still receive regular requests from poetry.com for money for the US Poets Society to "read" my poems ... so thus I refer to this type of transaction as "Drama in Poetry" ... I still cling to the notion that I am an excellent reader and can do the best with my own poetry ... considering that I did a four year training course in "Drama" and even though I might be a bit rusty I still can READ my own work ... the US Poets Society is still not convinced so my final word on this controversy was that they read my poems for free ... since I wish to make my own living in this country reading my own work including "Drama in Poetry"
Dramatic and Poetic work .. excellent material from BBC and SM Thompson ... and Alan Bennett .........................
keep on reading your own poetry : plays: and other materials ....