ABSTRACT
When Hamlet questions his life in the famous soliloquy, Act III, Scene 1, there is the question of whether to go on, whether to continue suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or not. In Shakespeare’s play, it is a moment marked by choice. When we, as writers, are at those same crossroads and decide in favor of life — the life of a playwright — part of our success, emotionally and professionally, depends on our understanding the rules of the contract were making. If we are signing on for the long run, we are agreeing to wbear those ills we have,” as playwrights, those “outra geous fortunes,” rather than turning to more certain professions, like those of mathematicians, physicists, or accountants, where the square root of 625 is forever 25, and dont ask me why. I have it on authority from my husband who is an engineer.
