Page 3 of 5

Posted on

When Did the Playwright Decide His Own Life Was Worth Examining in a Play?

When did the Playwright turn away from others as a topic of his plays and turn into himself to become the Autobiographer of his own wishes, dreams and experiences on stage? The Amazing Howard Stein and I recently shared a conversation on this topic and Howard wondered if the first instance could be found in Aeschylus who wrote “The Persians” in 472 BC.

Continue reading → When Did the Playwright Decide His Own Life Was Worth Examining in a Play?

Posted on

Dr. Howard Stein on Why Playwrights Must Experiment with the Audience

[Author’s Note: This is a portion of a speech I gave to the Southeast Theatre Conference in 2000.]

In Robert Aulett’s play, Alberta Radiance, Alberta speaks the opening like, “I have this human life to live, and I don’t know what to do with it.”  The operative word is human, as in “the human condition,” “the human predicament” or “the human comedy.”  When we utter such expressions, we assume the listener knows what we mean, but in my 78 years of living, I have never heard anyone explain what that “human” condition, predicament, comedy or life is.

Continue reading → Dr. Howard Stein on Why Playwrights Must Experiment with the Audience

Posted on

Trilling, Albee and Pinter: On Marriage as a Competition

In 1962, Edward Albee debuted his play, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” to stunned audiences everywhere.  We were not used to seeing a married couple fight in mixed company.  The play was unsettling, audacious, and successful.

Continue reading → Trilling, Albee and Pinter: On Marriage as a Competition

Posted on

Medium: How to Ruin the Morality a Television Franchise

Last night, in a horrific ending to a truly great television program, “Medium” concluded its successful seven-year run on network television.  CBS rescued the show after a five-year run on NBC; but after two seasons on its network, CBS drew down the hammer and cancelled the show.

Continue reading → Medium: How to Ruin the Morality a Television Franchise

Posted on

The Provenance of the Provincetown Playhouse as a Failed NYU Revival

The Provincetown Playhouse holds an important niche in early American Theater History as the staging point cradle of the great Playwright Eugene O’Neill’s earliest, and most challenging, plays and the theatre was the hearthstone for premier plays written by Edna St. Vincent Millay, Edward Albee, John Guare, Sam Shepherd, Charles Busch, and David Mamet.

Continue reading → The Provenance of the Provincetown Playhouse as a Failed NYU Revival

Posted on

Writing a Sixty Second Play

One task I give my amateur Playwriting students is to have them write a 60-second play in Two Acts using the Three Act structure.  That means you have around 30 seconds to set up the plot conflict points, 20 seconds to explode the conflict and 10 seconds to bring around a catharsis and denouement. 

Continue reading → Writing a Sixty Second Play

Posted on

Thinking About Eric Bentley

In thinking about Eric Bentley as he stretches beyond his 93rd birthday, we are torn between the genius of his writing and his coldness as a man.  Will the writing endure?  Or will the chilly memory frost the evergreen talent?

Continue reading → Thinking About Eric Bentley