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De-confusing “Cast Appropriately"
Casting Call BEN: Male, 35-40, large-boned, seems dangerous but really a pussycat. Dark blond hair. ALVY: cast appropriately. The above...
Inflexible Dynamo
Mar 20, 20194 min read
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Giving Yourself Every Advantage, or Shameless Book Plug
We all have different ideas about playwriting and development, and that's great. I've fielded more than a few questions about the...
Inflexible Dynamo
Feb 23, 20192 min read
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Trimming the Tree
When it comes right down to it, it might just be nothing more complicated than age mixed with organic, unadulterated crankiness, a trait...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jan 14, 20192 min read
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Where does a playwright’s responsibility to the audience’s emotional health begin and end?
We like to proclaim proudly that “the best plays are the ones that move the audience, challenge the intellect, and serve as a catalyst...
Inflexible Dynamo
Dec 7, 20184 min read
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Trigger Warnings
A colleague recently posted a New York Times article about trigger warnings with the comment “Nothing ruins a magic trick more than...
Inflexible Dynamo
Nov 19, 20183 min read
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Bad Decisions Make Great Drama.
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Sep 28, 20182 min read
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How much control is too much? How much control is not enough?
There's an ongoing discussion (started around Euripides' time, I think) about how far playwrights should go to protect the intent, the...
Inflexible Dynamo
Sep 12, 20185 min read
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Still Working This One Out...
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Sep 5, 20182 min read
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“Ehhhh, Mr. Sapio...this is Harlan Ellison. We need to talk.”
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jul 8, 20186 min read
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Obstacles. Those bits in the middle.
We've all had issues with obstacles--those pesky road blocks that all protagonists have to navigate successfully in order to achieve...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jul 3, 20183 min read
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The Best of Us (3)
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jun 15, 20185 min read
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Notes from "The Viking Suicides" Workshop, Part 2
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
May 9, 20183 min read
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Notes from the "Viking Suicides" Workshop, Part 1
We’re having the first workshop rehearsal for my new play, The Viking Suicides. Two of the cast members have been through this process...
Inflexible Dynamo
May 5, 20184 min read
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Just Mull. And Enjoy It.
It's called Writer's Block, that agonizing period fraught with insecurity when the creative river dries up. Writer's Block: when you need...
Inflexible Dynamo
Mar 29, 20183 min read
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Best Advice I Ever Received About Playwriting: Learn How to Do Everything
Seems like a simple concept, and yet many playwrights continue to keep themselves away from the rest of the profession. I've heard them...
Inflexible Dynamo
Feb 23, 20183 min read
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Life Lesson
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jan 28, 20183 min read
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A Playwright's Day
Make coffee. Write. Think about taking shower. Write. Change title. Write. Daydream. Write. Feed/change baby. Write. Eat. Write. Realize...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jan 21, 20181 min read
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Noooooo...It belongs Over HERE.
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...
Inflexible Dynamo
Jan 15, 20183 min read
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Don't Fear the Talkback!
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,...
Inflexible Dynamo
Oct 16, 20175 min read
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Size Matters
Synopsis: 1. a brief or condensed statement giving a general view of some subject. 2. a compendium of heads or short paragraphs giving...
Inflexible Dynamo
Oct 13, 20162 min read
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