Playwriting is play rewriting

how the hard work gets done

New Plays are a team effort.

This surprised me. I had assumed that writing a play was like writing a novel. Or the popular conception of writing a novel.

Yes. 16 year old me did believe that the Love Actually version of novel writing was real. Complete with the tea deliver system - the kind of assistant that cooks and cleans for you.

This is my 41 year old understanding of what it takes to write a novel. Yann Martel’s little office hovel hut detached from the house. Did I read that there is a standing desk with a little treadmill under it in there? Okay. This, too is the fantasy version.

A playwright friend extracted the essential elements of the above set-ups so he could write a play: 1. Solitude - achieved by living on his own for the first time in a new city without friends; and, 2. Sustenance - the steady supply of tea and crackers was financed by a graduate program stipend.

His apartment was small. Like Northeast old rowhome 7 foot ceilings small. He had the first floor apartment, one of those ‘first floors’ that you have to walk up a dozen stairs to get to. The front door opened to a 6’ by 6’ room with a fridge, a window, a sink, a hutch, a chair. He said th…