Never an unhappy ending

Karin Spritzler has “performed” four marriages in the last year, but she is neither a minister, a rabbi nor a justice of the peace. Spritzler, a Los Angeles poet, playwright and former Creative Artists Agency story analyst, has resurrected the wedding bard, the grand storyteller from days of old, by creating 10-minute poetic narrative plays for weddings.

In these scenarios, based on interviews with the betrothed, boy meets girl, and boy may lose girl, but every story has arrived at the day’s happy ending. “There’s no such thing as a boring love story because the essence of falling in love is always heroic and inspiring,” Spritzler says. “I’m a historian of love.”

Thus, for fees that range from hundreds to thousands of dollars depending on the project’s complexity, she’s chronicled the small, quirky moments that might not have made the script in her industry days. One groom explained to his bride, “When you make your mother’s eggplant lasagna I feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven.” (A sampling of scripts is at www.weddingbard.com.)

Spritzler’s job is done when she delivers the story to the wedding party that will perform it, but it’s clear that she sees herself as something of an agent of love.

Back at CAA, Spritzler says, “I read more than 2,000 scripts, but my calling was never to be a screenwriter. I’m a poet and a bard. I’ve totally gone against the grain of Hollywood” -- at least in a season without a “Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

-- M.T.J.