Visiting Playwrights
Originally published at The Off-Center. Please leave any comments there.
I’m in this class at Columbia called “Visiting Playwrights”, which is precisely what it sounds like… the class is specifically geared toward the theme of making a living as a writer. Here is a brief collection of some of the notes I’ve taken from some of our guests.
Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter, Finer Noble Gases, The L Word and other things):
“As a director, I am an audience advocate and a purporter of simplicity.”
“I feel that the greatest sin in the theater is boredom.”
“Scare yourself. Write what you’re afraid to write. Write what wakes you up at night.”
“Theater is a bear pit. It’s not for pithy arguments or clever conversation. It’s for ripping people apart.”
“After tablework, I read through the whole script and let my actors animte it in the space, divested of the responsibility of knowing the words. I never look up from the page.”
Stephen Adley Guirgis (Jesus Hopped the A Train, Our Lady of 121st Street, and others):
“Everyone who wants to do this finds their place in the business.”
In the early stages, you can exchange comfort for time. Luxury can be seductive but living at the minimum can keep you hungry.
“There is a best version of everything.”
“Never refuse a meeting and ALWAYS take the beverage.”
“Success has almost nothing to do with talent. There’s our talent, and then there’s what we get out of it.”
“Why does the writer get up in the morning - I also want to know what keeps him up at night.”
Diana Son (Stop Kiss, lots of Law and Order, The West Wing Season 1 and others):
TV writing is often the job or writing in someone else’s voice.
Does not recommend workin in a literary office so that there is less exposure to practical limitations.
Young Jean Lee (Church, and others):
“I decided not to wait for someone to say ‘yes’ to me - I went out and created it for myself.”
“I cast my shows before I have a script, and I cast based on intelligence, charisma and range.”
Young Jean asks herself what is the last play that she would ever want to write, and she makes herself write it.
“I always have the audience in mind.”
Ok, I thought I had a lot more notes than this, but looking back at it all, I’ve jotted down names of theater companies, grants and fellowships and contests and names of people that don’t make a whole lot of sense any more now that everything is out of context. But there you have it - what little I have from this class. Still, some interesting stuff. Not Albee or Sondheim, but interesting.