Re: RAT Re: obscurity

["Megan Monaghan" <meganmonaghan@email.msn.com>]

Of course, the person is not the play.  The person is a dimension.  The play
is a dimension.  Sometimes, the combination of the two allows me to glimpse
something in a third dimension that I would not see without the combination
of the two.  It can work to pick a play that "works on the page," but for
those that don't necessarily leap off the page and wave their arms at the
reader, the dimension of the writer can be illuminating.  As can half a
dozen other tools in the literary toolbox.  Knowing the writer is not a
*necessary* tool for picking every play.  But sometimes, it will be the tool
I need to open the play and see it for what it is.

Megan
Playwrights' Center

-----Original Message-----
From: Ezra Buzzington <jonoh1@juno.com>
To: rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com <rat-list@whirl-i-gig.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 23, 1999 7:56 PM
Subject: RAT Re: obscurity


>Okay,
>What am I missing here? What ever happened to if it ain't on the page it
>ain't on the stage? I'm quite sincerely having trouble understanding what
>possible difference it would make to have some passing (or lasting for
>that matter) relationship with a playwright in understanding their work
>better. During rehearsals, yes, of course. The run of the play, most
>definitely. I don't have to know Terence McNally to better understand his
>plays. I know them for the crap they are. I don't need to get to know Mac
>Wellman to hear his voice. I think this approach is a cop out extreme.
>The person is not the play.
>Jonathan Harris
>
>
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