There's a university (I shall not name it here). It is among a handful which over the years honored my Mom with an Honorary Doctorate given in conjunction with her commencement address. My father never had... Continue reading

Reading a student's new play, I find myself returning to a simple (but essential) question. How do you decide what to put on stage and what to put offstage? (Screenwriters: translate offstage to offscreen...) I have... Continue reading

Years ago, my good pal John Yearley, a gifted writer who absolutely needs to be a playwright because his humanity or his writer soul naturally seeks its expression through dialogue, said the following about a someone... Continue reading

I've been catching up on some "must-view" watching from this golden age of television and have discovered a new intense pet peeve. Dialogue written for characters who are working class, poorly educated, or non-white that has... Continue reading

Alvin Epstein, friend, mentor, collaborator, died the other day. I feel so fortunate to have had him in my creative life since I was a precocious 13-yr-old eager to learn all I could from this master actor, director and philosopher. I'm re-posting this tribute to Alvin below. And I include for your viewing pleasure an excerpt from his performance in my 2009 film, WE PEDAL UPHILL. Continue reading

The writer who takes the time necessary to stop and ponder and listen to where the true center of each of his characters lives will achieve truth in storytelling. And this firmly grounded truth, an undeniable truth that you simply know when you see it? That's what makes a solid writer a great writer. Continue reading

I sometimes find it hard to convey to writing students exactly how we know that a script is collapsing under the weight of too many artificially assembled plot points. This actual item from today's local news... Continue reading

I'm spending a good portion of this summer workshopping my storefront spectacle, No Place to Hide. In a nutshell, I appear inside the storefront window of a local business somewhere typing on a laptop and either... Continue reading

Who We Are Now is one of the best indie films I've seen in years. And it's playing on one screen, the beloved Cinema Village. And if yesterday's sparse attendance is any indication, it won't be... Continue reading

"What do you hope an audience comes away with after [reading, watching, seeing, hearing] this [book, film, show, song]?'" I have probably been asked this question a thousand times, sometimes by friends or acquaintances but more... Continue reading

I have to admit, for years I carried around a trunkful of unhealthy skepticism around McKee's theories because I assumed he was prescriptive, engaged in a lifelong promotion of a kind of paint-by-numbers manual for screenwriting. Continue reading

In a music-theatre context, there are a number of questions that must be answered before any song can be completed. Often when lyricists and composers collaborate on songs for a new show, these questions may be... Continue reading

I'm embarrassed to have to say I forget which teacher first taught me this old trick. If you're out there and reading this, please forgive me for not giving credit where credit is due. But this... Continue reading

Since leaving my full-time position at the Dramatists Guild, I've been doing more and more of my freelance teaching online. And it's got me thinking about the ways in which meeting a group of folks for... Continue reading

I've been doing a ton of teaching lately. One of the things I pride myself on most in terms of my teaching style is that I work hard to build camaraderie among members of a class.... Continue reading

From the moment we decide to produce something, to mount anything for public consumption, we have assumed a responsibility to the community to frame the work in love. Continue reading