Beware Who You Ask for Advice

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'Don't talk about your play while you are writing it. Good plays are always the product of a single vision . . .. A play is one thing you can get too much help with.. . . Don't talk the play away.'

-- Marsha Norman

Beware of advice from your friends even more than your enemies. Everybody in America who wants to write a Screenplay [that's almost everyone] will settle for a stage play. If they figure out you know something about how to write one, they'll probably try to get you to write their play: that's the one they'd write, if only they had the time, the pencil, the . . . You know the story.

Literary Managers and professional Directors more often than not have the knack of commenting on the play you've written, as opposed to the one they'd like to write themselves, though this process is far from foolproof. For your own health, hang this on the wall where you write . . .

Editing Old Bill

And there are even a few Artistic Directors of major repertory companies who have concluded that plays can't be fixed -- let alone improved -- by New Play Development Programs of readings and workshops. But despite the flack they get, these things can be very helpful to a playwright: Especially because they often give you that first chance to hear professional actors explore your dialogue.

And then there's that opening night kind of advice from . . .

Theatre Critics

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