Click here to read The Wake-Up Call, a ten-minute play by Roy Proctor.
© Roy Proctor 2014
Roy Proctor, a native of Thomasville, N.C., has completed three full-length plays and 36 short plays since he turned to playwriting 2 ½ years ago after a 30-year career as the staff theater and art critic on the two daily newspapers in Richmond, Va. His plays have been presented in Cambridge, England; Cardiff, Wales; New York City; Washington, D.C.; Richmond; New Orleans, La.; and points in between. Short plays from his 12-play cycle of adaptations of Chekhov short stories were presented this summer in Richmond, Raleigh, N.C., and Edinboro, Pa. He lives in Richmond and is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
Unlike Proctor’s other plays, “The Wake-Up Call” draws directly on his experience as a theater critic. “Phone calls to critics from irate, sometimes drunken, often verbally abusive actors in the wee hours are not uncommon,” Proctor says. “I usually put up with them to the extent that I respected the talent of the caller. I have a profound respect for actors as a group. They make financial and other sacrifices for the public good that I, as a journalist with a steady paycheck and other job security, would never have been willing to make.”
Proctor can be reached at royproctor@aol.com to discuss rights for production of “The Wake-Up Call.”
Lovely little play, and a nice pondering on the individual emotions behind art and criticism. As an actor and writer, I have been in Randall’s shoes, and as a patron I’ve been in Maurice’s. Nice work!