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The Invented Line Between Stealing and Inspiration

The false charges against Barack Obama from the Clinton campaign claiming plagiarism is laughable on the surface and ridiculous in the depths.

The bane of plagiarism, however, is a serious matter and it deserves more discovery and I will more formally address that topic in a future article.

Plagiarism — taking someone else’s ideas and claiming them as your own — is an issue to some in the theatre.  I argue the distinction is meaningless because in a live performance the difference between stealing and inspiration is ever-changing.

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United Stage Russian Plays Download

As President of The United Stage, one of the joys of my job is to support both foundling and professional Playwrights who wish to direct their own plays.

As an online United Stage feature, we offer any Playwright the ability to upload plays for others to read and for everyone to download new plays from Playwrights you might not yet know.

I invite you today to go to the United Stage Plays Download Site to discover the new work of some outstanding Playwrights across the world.

Our latest Playwright offering is from “Churyahin.” Churyahin is a Russian Playwright born into a military prosecutor’s family (Novosibirsk, 1955) who graduated from the Institute of Nonferrous Metals and Gold (Krasnoyarsk, 1977) and earned an approved a doctorial dissertation (Novosibirsk, 1983). Churyahin currently works as a lecturing professor in the area of mathematical modeling at the Siberian Aerospace University (Krasnoyarsk).

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August Wilson Died Tonight

The great American Playwright August Wilson died tonight of liver cancer. His doctors said this Summer in the month that bore his name he might live until October. And so he did. He was 60. Here is the tribute I wrote to him on August 27, 2005. We breathlessly miss him already.

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As He Dies Writing

August WilsonThe greatest living American Playwright and double Pulitzer Prize winning author August Wilson is dying.

August Wilson told the world Friday he has inoperable liver cancer.

He found out in June he was terminal. Doctors say he might live until October.

August isn’t dying lonely or alone.

He is leaving us by cursing that good night with pen in hand and parchment on his lap as he places the final touches on Radio Golf, the last play of his life.

What must it be like for August Wilson to know his ending while writing his future?

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Missing Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller died. He was 89. When I was in the M.F.A. Theatre program at Columbia University I was fortunate to meet Arthur Miller at a staged reading of a new Arthur Kopit play called Bone the Fish at the old Circle Rep “garage” theatre in the Village near Christopher Street. Kopit’s play was a semi-send up of David Mamet’s successful Speed the Plow Broadway play.

Kopit later changed the title to Road to Nirvana when the play had a full Circle Rep production later in the season. The staged reading starred Sigourney Weaver and it was directed by her husband, Jim Simpson.

I was working as Arthur Kopit’s assistant on the show and I was stationed in the back row of the theatre to take notes. A beautiful young woman came up and asked me to save her the last empty seat next to me. I did not want to commit to saving her seat because the theatre was packed and more people were streaming into the tiny space. Before I could answer her she winked, smiled and disappeared.

Continue reading → Missing Arthur Miller