Answering My Own Questions

Below I asked a few questions and got a lot of really interesting responses. I suggest anyone interested check out some of this blog's interested participants here and here.

I'm going to post my own answers to those questions as well, because hey, why should I leave myself out?

Here goes:

1. How often do you buy new plays to read?

I usually read plays as needed, not for pleasure. I usually buy novels for pleasure to read. I don't often buy plays that I'm not actually working on. Maybe two or three times a year, honestly. I already own most of my favorites.

2. Do you think of plays as written literature, or are they simply blueprints for a production?

I think plays are intended to be performed, not read.

3. Do you have a favorite critic to read (as opposed to one you despise)?

I actually like Ben Brantley when he gets really mad and slaps a show around. Like his Dracula review, which was hilarious. I also wish we had more theatre reviewers like Anthony Lane reviews films.

4. When is your next production? (This is where you can plug stuff with my permission.)

My next production, as of now, will be going up in June in NYC, and is called "The Most Wonderful Love." Also, a new anthology (as yet unannounced) will feature a play of mine. That will be released around the same time.

And the other set of questions:

1. Are you, or have you ever been, religious?

I was raised Episcopalian. My personal view, lately, is that while I'm certainly not my Dad...I think that the co-opting of Christianity by a political group has really cheapened what's good about it. This can happen to any religion. There are lots of beautiful concepts in most beliefs systems...and the question is always how they are applied, not how they are literally interpreted.

2. What sort of dreadful thing made you want to go into theater (or another creative endeavor?)

I wanted to be a poet, then I got into acting. I blame Endgame, almost entirely, for moving theatre past poetry in my good books.

3. Do you read poetry, and if so, who do you prefer?

I love poetry, but have less time to sit and read it than I used to. My favorites have included Mark Strand (whose work inspired Reasons for Moving), T.S. Eliot, Charles Simic and David Ignatow.

4. Do you think blogging is useful?

I'm not entirely sure yet. One half of me says that this dialogue is good for all of us. Another half of me says that only other bloggers seem interested in blogs and that theatre is better actually worked on that discussed. It certainly is a way for me to distract myself and NOT work on plays I should be editing and/or writing. But fun, yes...it is fun. And in the immortal final words of Captain James T. Kirk:

"It was...fun."