Having seen an unusual number of readings lately, I’ve noticed things that are not quite bad habits, because they’re deliberate, not automatic, but that are detrimental nonetheless. Maybe the best word is indulgences, things perceived as necessary, even clever, but that—at least for me—have the opposite effect, which is almost always making the playwright too present, […]

    A few weeks ago, in the midst of reading submissions, I started a mini-tweetfest of lines that should be eliminated from plays entirely. With a hashtag of #retirethisline, I sent out a bunch of tweets, and encouraged some others. Because Twitter is fast and furious and they were easy to miss, I thought […]

    “I used to be really into (fill in the blank).” That’s something I can say about a lot of things in my life—photography, running as a preferred form of exercise, making my own greeting cards, film seminars, a certain lecture series, chicken wings.  You probably have a similar list. And if we examine […]