It's the Intermission
A Creative Coffee Break

I write to understand myself, my family, my friends, the strangers around me. I write to try to understand why I respond to the world the way I do. Equally importantly, why you respond the way you do. Thus far, I have to love all my characters I am writing about; even the evil ones. Because, ultimately, no matter how much you see ‘you’ in them, they are really all a part of me. Somehow, I believe, this love keeps me connected to my compassion, my humanity, and possibly brings me just a little humility/teachability.

Why I write plays is harder to explain. For years I wrote bad poetry. There was a story I wanted to tell, and I tried it as a novel, unsuccessfully, and then condensed as a short story. Also unsuccessfully. In the course of writing prose, I realized all that “came out” on paper was in dialogue form. And it was in that moment, playwriting became my writing home.

If you look into any play, you’re gonna see the playwright, in one disguise or another. The miracle of Shakespeare is that he had so many disguises.

Arthur Miller

There is some instant gratification involved in theatre, that is extremely potent. If you are fortunate enough to have some kind of audience for your work, actors to bring it to life, you feel the power in making an audience laugh, cry, and pay attention. It’s my drug.

I write to find wholeness, to earn my keep, to entertain, and maybe even edify, in some way, myself and you.

Afllicted. Yes. Arthur Miller said something like that too.

I don’t know why Mr. Miller is quoting today. He just is.