Intermission
a creative coffee break from writing the play

I believe that in their hearts, playwrights are trying to make sense of it all, trying to sell us something more than just tickets.

Carlyle Brown, “New Plays: Survivor or Lost?” American Theatre Magazine, Vol 27, No. 6, July/August 2010, p.54

Suzan Lori-Parks
Fort Knox, Kentucky
May 10, 1963

A play begins with characters. It never starts with an idea. I think some people say, “Oh, I have a great idea; I want to talk about the homeless problem.” And then they write a play about homelessness. But my plays never start with an idea about anything, and it is only way, way late in the game that I figure out the question: So what’s the play about? And not even then…I always start with characters, sometimes a word.

Interview with Suzan-Lori Parks
Callaloo, Vol. 19, No 2, Spring 1996, p.315

Clare Boothe Luce
April 10, 1903
New York, New York, USA

…I was afraid that if a new production went badly, the play would be officially buried. But it seems to have more vitality than I thought. Some things don’t change: People still have affairs; divorces still hurt; there are still women who lead empty, idle lives. I’m an old theatre girl, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Clare Boothe Luce
April 22, 1973
On Harry, and Henry and Ike and Mr. Shaw
By Martha Weinman Lear
New York Times

Marguerite Duras
April 4, 1914
Gia-Dinh, French Indochina (now Vietnam)

Writing was the only thing that populated my life and made it magic. I did it. Writing never left me.

Writing
by
Marguerite Duras
(French translation by Mark Polizzotti)

You know how people have arguments and seven days later you think of a good answer?

Nellie Forbush
South Pacific
Book by
Oscar Hammerstein II and Joshua Logan
Music by
Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by
Oscar Hammerstein II

Of the six hands he had, none of them were mine.

Carmichael
A Behanding in Spokane
by Martin McDonagh

Theresa Rebeck
Birthday Unknown
Kenwood, Ohio, USA

There is a Native American saying, “It takes a thousand voices to tell a single story.” And Walter Cronkite told us, “In seeking truth, you have to get both sides of the story.”

It’s time to hear both sides, to hear all voices, to build a culture where stories are told by both men and women. That is the way the planet is going to survive, and it’s the way we are going to survive.

Theresa Rebeck
from the annual
ART/NY Curtain Call presentation
Laura Pels Theater
March 15, 2010

I was born on Easter Sunday. The Titanic went down
the following Thursday. And why? Two Titanics can’t exist in the world at one time! When one shows up, the other has to go down!

Harry Hay
in
The Temperamentals
by
Jon Marans