We like to proclaim proudly that “the best plays are the ones that move the audience, challenge the intellect, and serve as a catalyst...

A colleague recently posted a New York Times article about trigger warnings with the comment “Nothing ruins a magic trick more than...

It's a truth. Look at any great play and see what the bad decision was. Someone fucked up hugely. Someone got badly burned. Someone got...

There's an ongoing discussion (started around Euripides' time, I think) about how far playwrights should go to protect the intent, the...

Nike guilty of sweatshop employment practices for years, paying ~20 cents a day to workers working 60-70 hours a week to produce high-end...

With I heard these words on my answering machine* I knew I was pipik-deep in serious shit. For those of you unacquainted with the legend...

We've all had issues with obstacles--those pesky road blocks that all protagonists have to navigate successfully in order to achieve...

The call came in the early afternoon. That very morning I had seen three—count 'em—three rejection slips. This was the fifth year of my...

In Part I of this post I promised to address why I encourage everyone at the table to speak their minds freely and openly. Here’s why. I...

We’re having the first workshop rehearsal for my new play, The Viking Suicides. Two of the cast members have been through this process...

It's called Writer's Block, that agonizing period fraught with insecurity when the creative river dries up. Writer's Block: when you need...

Seems like a simple concept, and yet many playwrights continue to keep themselves away from the rest of the profession. I've heard them...

Odd memory to surface: I was 14, parents were trying to get my father divorced from his estranged wife (1973, remember). I'm sitting in...

Make coffee. Write. Think about taking shower. Write. Change title. Write. Daydream. Write. Feed/change baby. Write. Eat. Write. Realize...

Every once in a while the question comes up: how detailed should I be with my set directions? For me, the answer is easy. For others it...

It’s happened to most of us. We’ve just finished the staged reading or performance of our newest play, and we sit next to the director,...

Synopsis: 1. a brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject. 2. a compendium of heads or short paragraphs giving...

The great miraculous bell of translucent ice is suspended in mid-air; It rings to announce endings and beginnings. And it rings because...

So I'm in my tavern of choice, shooting a few games of pool with an acquaintance. There's a huge crowd filling the rest of the place, and...

David Bowie died a few days ago. Didn't know him personally, and (major regret) never saw him in concert. Loved a lot of his music. Lou...