DRAMATURGY

I read Christine Toyama’s “Dramaturges: Playwrights’ Little Helpers” (April 28) with interest and, in the end, a degree of dismay and disgust.

There is no reason to popularize these individuals. A drama turd (I spell it differently) cannot write, cannot direct, can only comment upon the work of others. He makes a living by destroying. He cannot say a work is good because, were he to do that, his job would be affected, he could not eat.

So he hedges all praise with the need for re-structuring, vague notions about motivation and character, etc., all garbage because any good dramatist has conceived and worked out all these problems before putting one word to paper.

Then a naive person like Koyama comes along and abets a bad situation by glorifying these leeches, immortalizing them in print. Hers was the first article I have ever seen concerning this new breed. I hope it does not signify a trend. These people are a bone in the throat of dramatists.

BUDD ROBINSON

Canoga Park