Theresa Rebeck
I think it goes without saying that young would-be playwrights in developmental workshops should be so lucky as to write plays as good as 'Waiting for Godot,' 'Uncle Vanya' or 'King Lear,' none of which would have existed without a decent plot.
Obviously, a theatrical masterpiece needs more than a plot; many television shows are nothing but plot, and it is doubtful that they will stand the test of time. But I also don't think that making fun of plot or acting like we're all somehow 'above' structure is such a good idea.
I seem to be constantly confronted by theater professionals who are more or less annoyed by the prospect of structure.
That stupid postmodern emphasis on image over content has slammed us right into a dramaturgy that willfully leaves the audience behind and then resents the fact that they don't 'get it.'
Sometimes I feel that my job on earth is to put Julie White through horrible things, watch her writhe and then recover.
Part of the problem with producing contemporary political theater in America today is that many theaters don't have flexibility or resources, be it hiring a lot of actors or staging a work that might be tough for some audience and board members.
Some of my family goes back a long way in Denver.
Denver's commitment to giving contemporary storytellers the stage is crucial to the American theater. That's something embraced by 'Smash.' We should be telling our own stories.
There's a thing that happens to Midwesterners - we spend a lot of time talking about having a different set of rules about manners. I don't know about ethics, but certainly about manners, what you would say and what you wouldn't say. And that is not very East coast.
I'm actually interested in poor behavior. I'm interested in what drives people to poor behavior.
I do believe that there are monsters out there - and that they are monsters.
Show business is a struggle. I certainly wish that I had just blasted on the scene and not had quite such a hard time. But there's a great sense of the relief in that you don't have to prove yourself anymore.
Generally, what I try to do is always have a money gig and an art gig.
In television, what you are doing is trying to fit your voice into a particular mold.
When I was a staff writer on 'NYPD Blue,' it was truly my job to hear David Milch's voice for that show and to deliver episodes that embodied that voice.
I would rather work in the theater than anywhere else, and it does seem to be a place where stories can and should be told purely.
New York was the Promised Land growing up. Writers were gods! The great gods of American culture... I thought.
I see how the Midwest distrusts the East Coast. The Midwest sees itself as morally superior. The Coast sees itself as intellectually superior. And the two are actually the same thing.
I have tremendous affection for New York and my life, but I'm a satirist at heart. And it's easy to satirize New York.
The economics of theater are painful. I still think that the theater community should be looking much more rigorously at how to let the playwright keep the money they make.
In the theater, there's an emphasis on the singular voice. You know, it's your play. And in television, there's so much institutional involvement. So you end up having to negotiate with a lot of people, and that provides a kind of wear and tear on the spirit.
Watching people toss all caution to the wind, who are ready to put their lives on the line for a dream, is something that is accessible.
I think that because television is shot on a really fast schedule, and it gets piped into your home on a smaller screen, it's much more about character and dialogue in a lot of cases than the movies are.
The movies are all about visual, and television is all about character and dialogue.
I actually think we should be trying to be rigorous in our thinking about television and the way it enters our lives and shapes the way so many people think.
I have always worked consistently, even in small ways and even in smaller theaters where I'll do One Acts or something.
Honestly, the thing that I have found to be most useful over a long career, or maintaining a long career, is taking back the power at some point and self-producing.
I like working with television. I do.
I often find it maddening to live in America, in a way that is both amusing and horrifying to me. America clings to versions of itself that are absolutely hypocritical. I can't shake my outrage at it, so I write about it.
I make my life with New York stage actors, and I love them. They're the best actors on planet earth.
I remember when I was at Brandeis, Geoffrey Wolff, he was a great fiction-writing teacher. He was the writer-in-residence, and for those of us who wanted to be writers, you were so excited to be in the same hallway as him.
I am curious about a lot of things. I'm perplexed and engaged.
It's so funny, I'm always stealing from Moliere, and nobody ever notices. I steal from him willy-nilly.
I let action rise out of character, really.
I was born and raised in the Midwest, where people were taught that decency and integrity and community were all important values. We were democrats with a little 'd.'
We were told that hard work and talent and character would get you somewhere. At school, we learned it was important to share. On Arbor Day, we all planted trees.
When I go to Ohio to visit relatives on holidays, I am often astonished by the level of casual dismissal offered up by way of discussion.
There are times when I wonder how I ever thought that I could dramatize the death of a national discussion as a family comedy.
I'm an impatient person.
I work hard. I like getting to the end of things. And I write my plays that way.
It's one of the central problems of American culture: telling you if you're younger, more beautiful, more famous, whatever, that then you'll be happy.
When people tell me I'm a prolific writer, it's a nice thing to say. But I think to myself, 'Yeah, but I don't do anything else.'
Moliere and Arthur Miller affected me at a very young age. In adulthood, I became overwhelmed by Chekhov. Those are my big theatrical influences.
As a writer, I have always considered it my job to describe the world as I know it; to struggle toward whatever portion of the truth is available to me.Collection: Jobs
Theatre, film and television are all modes of storytelling, and many of us are fortunate enough to move freely among them without feeling that we've 'left' or need to 'go back' to one or the other. In fact, if the theatre is to avoid a brain drain, this kind of fluidity is increasingly necessary.Collection: Moving