How to Make Things Better

Okay, this is not a great picture, but it was the only one I could find of Andrew Lincoln who plays Keira Knightley's secret admirer in "Love Actually." I actually found this storyline very annoying in the movie when I first saw it, and my distaste has only grown since. So I did in fact fast forward through all of their scenes. But, I realized his confession would have been so much more interesting if he had simply taken off his shirt for most of it. Shirtlessness can make a lot of things better. Not everything, but many things.

In any case, as I laid on my couch on Saturday night after my 13 hour day in Tribeca, I enjoyed watching the many facets of love portrayed in the film and even cried a little bit for the grand romantic gestures at the end. I'm not sure that such things do exist in real life, but they made me weepy in a film, possibly because I had been standing on my feet in the crazy heat all day. I did figure out, though, why I had no recollection of the Roderigo Santoro-Laura Linney storyline. It was never resolved, and so I couldn't really hook into it. So while shirtlessness does make a lot of things better, it needs a good storyline to be truly memorable.

I'm happy to report that of the three plays that I saw this week, two featured shirtlessness. I really do believe that we at IMS are onto something with our efforts. Good male shirtlessness can make a bad play tolerable, and a good play really excellent. I really do have to go back and see how I can add shirtlessness to every single play I have ever written. A writer's work is never done! Until then, I am...

Yours in shirtlessness,
Nandita
President
IMS