Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “playwriting”
I’m deep in research for “Bystanders.” These paragraphs from New York Magazine state simply and clearly what we face when we face mass shootings: “There have been more mass school-shooting deaths in the past 18 years than in all of the 20th century. The long list of casualties includes a classroom full of first-graders, an event that shocked the nation …
Found over at the Bruntwood Prize is this list of questions from Amongst the Reeds playwright Chinonyerem Odimba. I find them provocative and inspiring in my own work. How to find the driving question(s) of your play Ask yourself questions about why you are telling this story. What excites you, the playwright, about the possibilities of the story? What moves …
On Youtube, the National Theatre has posted a series of videos intended to spark creativity and give insight into the playwriting process. In the series, ten playwrights discuss different approaches to their craft, featuring writers Simon Stephens, In-Sook Chappell, Evan Placey, Alecky Blythe, Tanya Ronder, Suhayla El-Bushra, Ryan Craig, Lucy Kirkwood, Inua Ellams and Dawn King. Check out all ten!
Theresa Rebeck’s career is a case study in being fearless. I came across this interview with her where she discusses just that: “Go Back and Reread Machiavelli” Rebeck has never been one to shy away from a challenge, and it shows. In addition to being an award-winning writer, she was named one of Newsweek’s “150 Fearless Women in the World” …
Tennessee Williams is one of my favorite playwrights, and is one of America’s best-loved and most-performed playwrights. I especially admire his facility with metaphor and his titles, which are at once evocative, provocative and intriguing: the exact combination you want in a play title. Over at Poetry Foundation, I found a poem by Williams, read by the author. Titled, “On …
I recently came across a wonderful Dramatists Guild Fund interview with Paula Vogel on Youtube. Paula’s 15 plays have been produced all over the US and the world. She was the director of the Brown University playwriting program for more than 20 years and also taught at Yale University, concurrent with her stint as the playwright in residence at Yale …
It’s a fact: 60% of men and 50% of women suffer from at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. Yet many might not describe an incident that removed their power and rendered them helpless as “traumatic.” What’s more, scientists and psychologists are beginning to study generational trauma, not personally experienced, but embedded in the body from past harms. In …
A while back in my writing group, a playwright (not a POC) posed this question: “How offensive or acceptable do people find on-stage racist and sexist name-calling?“ Racist and sexist name-calling appear in disparate (and award-winning) plays such as CLYBOURNE PARK (by Bruce Norris, a Pulitzer Prize winner), Caryl Churchill’s SERIOUS MONEY, THE SUBMISSION by Jeff Talbott (Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Award), …
Over at ScriptLab, they’ve posted a seven-day process to creating a complex and believable main character. (Possibly my favorite exercise is ordering a sandwich – or hot dog, perhaps – as my protagonist.) Check it out: DAY 1 – Describe your main character. Do it as if you were telling someone about some very interesting people you met, someone that …
“Drink plenty of tea.” I came across this flavorful bit of advice for playwrights from Sarah Ruhl, from a 2011 interview on The Days of Yore: “It’s a lonely life. Make friends with other playwrights. They are, after all, the best sort of people as they like to be alone and they also like to be with other people so …