Los Angeles
Wedding Bard Writes Only True Love Stories
by Karin Spritzler
Everyone wants to share their love at their wedding, but for many couples, telling the story of their love seems to be a daunting task. "We love each other so much, but we don't quite know how to express it so others can know it!" they say. This juncture is where having a bard comes in handy.
For those who do not recall, Shakespeare is known as The Bard- poet/storyteller whose most romantic story ever told is "Romeo and Juliet." I would guess that in every couple getting married, there is a trace of "Romeo and Juliet"- moment in which their love carries them through a challenge, sometimes an external one, sometimes an internal one, sometimes both. But it is in these moments told, or poetically expressed, that the audience can feel just how truly and deeply this couple loves one another. Bards, or storytellers, have a talent for mining these heartfelt moments and for being able to express the deepest core of love. Love can also be expressed in the way two people are so absolutely perfectly suited for each other, that their love is such a unique fit that they feel genuinely lucky to be in each other's lives. I am always so touched and humbled at the purity, the power and the honesty of true love.
I started writing Personalized Wedding Plays after twenty-five years in Hollywood as a professional "Story Analyst/Consultant." After reading over 2,000 screenplays, most of them too awful to even consider, I decided, "From now on, I only want to read true love stories." Very soon after that, as the guest at friend's wedding, I saw what I was called upon to do: be a "Wedding Bard!"
As a "Wedding Bard" I am able to use my experience as a professional writer/poet, and of course, hopeless romantic, to create a special reading (or "play") which captures the love story of the bride and the groom. Friends and family are the designated readers, as well as the bride and groom who may choose to participate, as I often incorporate their vows into their story. Some of the Wedding Plays are more than a simple reading. One play used hand-made puppets, another used projected photographs providing instant "scenery," and in another, one of the readers was a character the Bride and Groom affectionately called, "Wood"≠an old piece of wood they found when they were first dating and they both, without discussing the matter whatsoever, decided to "adopt" him! Here's what Wood had to say in their Wedding Play: " Who else in the world, but these two wonderful fantastic special people would ever think, looking at me in a pile of trash, 'We have to adopt him!' I hope to have a long and wonderful life with them." And one little Flower Girl who had the special role of holding up the placards for the changing "scenes" said afterwards, " I want to have a wedding play just like this one! And maybe a husband, too."
My passion and goal in being a "Wedding Bard" is to not only give the bride and groom a chance to savor their love, to hear their love-story spoken aloud, heard with fun, poetry, passion, and meaning in front of all who are gathered≠but also to be able to "inspire" those who are still waiting for Cupid's touch, or who perhaps have lost the comforting, exciting and wonderful feel of it. As I said, I'm a hopeless romantic.
Karin Spritzler is a playwright and writing instructor. She has also worked as a script analyst for major television and film studios. A graduate of Westlake School for Girls (now Havard-Westlake) and Carnegie Mellon University, she has studied painting and design. For more information see www.weddingbard.com.