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The Unfinished Work: Why Artists Demand Proof of Life

A playwriting teacher of mine once said something that has rattled around in my head for decades: “You can write a play, but it doesn’t exist until it finds life in the first production.” The Chair of our department disagreed with that assertion, and vehemently so. The script is the work, he argued. The text is complete in itself. The playwright’s obligation ends when the final period strikes the page.

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The Revenge Bloggers

You’ve read their blogs.  You’ve felt their heat.  You know their terroristic hatred.  I’m talking about — The Revenge Bloggers — and I’m hoping today we can try to deaden their cold, and narrow, icepick impact in the public square by asking them to retire their poison fingers.

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The Doctrine of Irrevocable Change

When I invented “The Doctrine of Irrevocable Change” for my Playwriting students, they were not happy with that indoctrination because my doctrine conflicted with their simpler wishes and wants to flatly relate the stories of their lives.

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All Drama is Conflict

One of the hardest things for any new Playwright to master is the notion of the requirement that — all drama is conflict — and that any scene between two people must be packed with conflict in order to move the plot forward.

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Rock Band and Guitar Hero Incompatibility

When I wandered into Toys ‘R’ Us on Monday evening this week I had no idea what kind of controversy I would eventually find. I thought it was just going to be a normal leisure stroll through the giant toy store. Of course, I was sorely mistaken and it ended up being a lot more upsetting than it should have been.

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