Rosamond Gilder

Kate! Kate! Would you mind taking a break on that file for a second. How would you write this letter? I mean I know what I want to say: The system doesn’t work; it never works. Where are my responses, Hallie? Why can’t I get anything done around here? What I want to say is.... “Hello Hallie? Hello Hallie?” Maybe I’ll just start writing that in my letters. “Hello, period.” Perhaps then I’d get a “Hello comma Roz” back. Or, better yet just send me a sheet of paper, we can use that around here. 

Okay, okay, you’re right Kate, I’m actually going to start. I’m going to start. Here we go:

“Dear Hallie. We both know I'm at the end of rope”. No, I can’t say that.

“Effective, September 6th I will no longer be the director of the bureau of research and publication. Your encouragement is of course very appreciated, but if I may be frank...”  If I may be frank, where’s my response Hallie? You know what. I’m just going to be honest: 

“What use is encouragement in our work without change, some aid of some sort to help us improve upon our current system.”

No, shoot. I feel like I said something like that last time. Well, there’s an easy solution to that, isn’t there. 

“Excuse me if I repeat information you have already read in our correspondence Hallie, but I am just not sure that my letters and their information are reaching you at this point based on the responses, or lack thereof, that I've received from you or others in the WPA.”

Don’t look at me like that Kate. I am being respectful. I know how to write a damn letter. I’m a critic. I am critiquing constructively. 

“We began with no structure.”  True.

“Which of course isn’t a problem. I took what I learned from the National Theatre Conference and adjusted accordingly. But we also had no materials, only one typewriter to begin with, a couple chairs and a table, and yet still, I put my best foot forward. Even now, with far too many employees with far too few qualifications, I find them a place in our mission.”

Okay, (beat) but now for the hard part. How do I get my point across here? How do I make it evident, the impact of the bureaucracy on our work? I know we employ people. I know we make some progress in finding materials for the FTP to use, but that wasn’t supposed to be the point of this program. Okay it is partly, but that’s not what I signed up for. I want change. I want impact. I want shifts in how people think, the value that we place on art as an American society. We have the power in this situation to do that, Kate. But she’s so caught up in the bureaucracy of it all, that this is just another job. The federal government will never put up with the work that we truly want to do. This project won’t last another 5 years, and at the end of those five years, what will we have accomplished? Where? Where will it live in the spirit of American history? I’m not working my ass off to be another dusty forgotten file in an unlabeled box, pushed into some basement to be thrown out at a later date. But I can’t say that can I? I’ll be done with this in just a second Kate, thank you for listening to me ramble. I’ll make do. Can you run it over to Hallie’s office directly when I’m done? Thank you. You are going to be a wonderful director of the research bureau. Much more patient than I could ever be. 

“However, even though I’ve managed to orchestrate a fairly effective bureau, my skills are needed urgently at Theatre Arts Magazine. I feel that I will much more help to you as a critic than as the director anyways. I resign effectively as of the 6th of September and wish for Kate Drain Lawson to take my place. She has been trained in all our practices and will be an excellent addition to your leadership team. 

Kindest regards,

Rosamond Gilder 

AKA Roz”