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Playwrights at Work: Interviews with Albee, Beckett, Guare, Hellman, Ionesco, Mamet, Miller, Pinter, Shepard, Simon, Stoppard, Wasserstein, Wilder, Williams, Wilson (Modern Library
The third installment in the Modern Library's Paris Review "Writers at Work" series, this is an all-new gathering of interviews with the most important and compelling playwrights of our time. Their singular takes on their craft, their influences, their lives, the state of contemporary theater, and the tricks of the trade create an illuminating and unparalleled record of the life of the theater itself.
"At its best, theater is an antidote to the whiff of barbarity in the millennial air. 'My feeling is that people in a group, en masse, watching something, react differently, and perhaps more profoundly, than they do when they're alone in their living rooms,' Arthur Miller says here. In the dark, facing the stage, surrounded by others, the paying customer can let himself go; he is emboldened. The theatrical encounter allows a member of the public to think against received opinions. He can submerge himself in the extraordinary, admit his darkest, most infantile wishes, feel the pulse of the contemporary, hear the sludge of street talk turned into poetry. This enterprise can be joyous and dangerous; when the theater's game is good and tense, it is both."
--from the Introduction by John Lahr
"At its best, theater is an antidote to the whiff of barbarity in the millennial air. 'My feeling is that people in a group, en masse, watching something, react differently, and perhaps more profoundly, than they do when they're alone in their living rooms,' Arthur Miller says here. In the dark, facing the stage, surrounded by others, the paying customer can let himself go; he is emboldened. The theatrical encounter allows a member of the public to think against received opinions. He can submerge himself in the extraordinary, admit his darkest, most infantile wishes, feel the pulse of the contemporary, hear the sludge of street talk turned into poetry. This enterprise can be joyous and dangerous; when the theater's game is good and tense, it is both."
--from the Introduction by John Lahr
432 pages, Paperback
First published May 30, 2000
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About the author
The Paris Review
119 books310 followersFounded in Paris by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton in 1953, The Paris Review began with a simple editorial mission: “Dear reader,” William Styron wrote in a letter in the inaugural issue, “The Paris Review hopes to emphasize creative work—fiction and poetry—not to the exclusion of criticism, but with the aim in mind of merely removing criticism from the dominating place it holds in most literary magazines and putting it pretty much where it belongs, i.e., somewhere near the back of the book. I think The Paris Review should welcome these people into its pages: the good writers and good poets, the non-drumbeaters and non-axe-grinders. So long as they're good.”
Decade after decade, the Review has introduced the important writers of the day. Adrienne Rich was first published in its pages, as were Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Mona Simpson, Edward P. Jones, and Rick Moody. Selections from Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy appeared in the fifth issue, one of his first publications in English. The magazine was also among the first to recognize the work of Jack Kerouac, with the publication of his short story, “The Mexican Girl,” in 1955. Other milestones of contemporary literature, now widely anthologized, also first made their appearance in The Paris Review: Italo Calvino's Last Comes the Raven, Philip Roth's Goodbye Columbus, Donald Barthelme's Alice, Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries, Peter Matthiessen's Far Tortuga, Jeffrey Eugenides’s Virgin Suicides, and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.
In addition to the focus on original creative work, the founding editors found another alternative to criticism—letting the authors talk about their work themselves. The Review’s Writers at Work interview series offers authors a rare opportunity to discuss their life and art at length; they have responded with some of the most revealing self-portraits in literature. Among the interviewees are William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov, Joan Didion, Seamus Heaney, Ian McEwan, and Lorrie Moore. In the words of one critic, it is “one of the single most persistent acts of cultural conservation in the history of the world.”
Decade after decade, the Review has introduced the important writers of the day. Adrienne Rich was first published in its pages, as were Philip Roth, V. S. Naipaul, T. Coraghessan Boyle, Mona Simpson, Edward P. Jones, and Rick Moody. Selections from Samuel Beckett's novel Molloy appeared in the fifth issue, one of his first publications in English. The magazine was also among the first to recognize the work of Jack Kerouac, with the publication of his short story, “The Mexican Girl,” in 1955. Other milestones of contemporary literature, now widely anthologized, also first made their appearance in The Paris Review: Italo Calvino's Last Comes the Raven, Philip Roth's Goodbye Columbus, Donald Barthelme's Alice, Jim Carroll's Basketball Diaries, Peter Matthiessen's Far Tortuga, Jeffrey Eugenides’s Virgin Suicides, and Jonathan Franzen’s The Corrections.
In addition to the focus on original creative work, the founding editors found another alternative to criticism—letting the authors talk about their work themselves. The Review’s Writers at Work interview series offers authors a rare opportunity to discuss their life and art at length; they have responded with some of the most revealing self-portraits in literature. Among the interviewees are William Faulkner, Vladimir Nabokov, Joan Didion, Seamus Heaney, Ian McEwan, and Lorrie Moore. In the words of one critic, it is “one of the single most persistent acts of cultural conservation in the history of the world.”
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
May 7, 2011
it is what it is. this is like the second time i've read this book and i often go back to it when i'm feeling spacey and uninspired. thornton wilder's and arthur miller's interviews are definitely the highlights for me. tennessee williams's is typically catty and fun, but his notebooks are infinitely more candid and interesting. neil simon's is surprisingly inspiring. sam shepard's is also kind of great and puzzling. david mamet seems atypically un-annoying. but, at the end of the day, playwrights arent particularly interesting to people other than other playwrights, i think, and that's only if they're really interesting, so... but, this time around, tracking similarities in thought and posture and attitude towards the process was kind of fun. i did notice that everyone was really down on Eugene O'Neill which was a little like WTF? also almost everyone hates method acting, which i thought was funny.
February 4, 2010
The Paris Review has been interviewing "writers at work" for over 50 years. The series is legendary. This volume collects 15 playwrights whom the Review has spotlighted, from Thornton Wilder to Wendy Wasserstein.
I love the interview format, which yields intimacy and surprise. Among the highlights for me were the very avuncular John Guare ("Six Degrees of Separation"), the brainy Arthur Miller ("Death of a Salesman"), and a surprisingly plainspoken Tom Stoppard ("Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"). Edward Albee, interviewed in 1966, displays so much self-regard it's off-putting; Harold Pinter, also interviewed in the '60s, is self-effacing to the point of blandness.
My only criticism of this volume is that some playwrights are not interviewed but are represented by prose pieces. There's a too-long essay on Beckett, who wouldn't sit for an interviewer; and a series of fragments from Tennessee Williams, that read like out-takes from his famously unreliable memoirs.
Recommended for playwrights and theater lovers.
I love the interview format, which yields intimacy and surprise. Among the highlights for me were the very avuncular John Guare ("Six Degrees of Separation"), the brainy Arthur Miller ("Death of a Salesman"), and a surprisingly plainspoken Tom Stoppard ("Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead"). Edward Albee, interviewed in 1966, displays so much self-regard it's off-putting; Harold Pinter, also interviewed in the '60s, is self-effacing to the point of blandness.
My only criticism of this volume is that some playwrights are not interviewed but are represented by prose pieces. There's a too-long essay on Beckett, who wouldn't sit for an interviewer; and a series of fragments from Tennessee Williams, that read like out-takes from his famously unreliable memoirs.
Recommended for playwrights and theater lovers.
September 2, 2021
A cross-section of interviews with playwrights from the American stage's Golden Age ('30s-90s), gleaned from The Paris Review. Each affirms the writer's signature persona: Thorton Wilder the professorial, Arthur Miller the intellectual, David Mamet the blowhard, etc. Their interrogators are just as eclectic a bunch, from James Lipton to Rose Styron. They match their subjects, to their credit, thought for thought, but the introductory portraits by which the writers are introduced are so good, you wish this was a collection of profile pieces instead.
May 30, 2010
I had read this in 2001 around the time it was published, but I couldn't remember a bit of it, except that I might like David Mamet more...anyway, I re-read it for the class I'm about to teach in 3 weeks at Washington State Penitentiary and it was a delight. It's also nice to read this while directing a play...I think it reminds me how to be better at structure and all those so-called old-fogyish techniques that actually help the director be a better communicator. My favorites were the interviews done with Beckett, Arthur Miller, Neil Simon (which I was surprised by...), August Wilson, David Mamet, and Wendy Wasserstein. I also always love interviews with Tennessee Williams, even though he rarely talks about process. All in all, a good read.
August 29, 2020
First, this is a collection of interviews held with famous playwrights which I was hoping would give me some insight into their lives and their methods that would help me in directing their works.
I'll make this short and sweet. Some of the interviews were quite enlightening and interesting. Others were a total waste of my time and I was inclined to quit halfway through them.
I'll make this short and sweet. Some of the interviews were quite enlightening and interesting. Others were a total waste of my time and I was inclined to quit halfway through them.
January 7, 2008
This should be required reading for anyone studying theatre.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews