EXTRA CRITICUM

Quotables: Michael Wright

This is a new feature we're trying out.

From time to time, Extra Criticum authors will post a quote from someone we admire, something that has stuck with us over the years and is, as they say, quotable.

Critic on the Spot: Leonard Jacobs v.5

Leonard Jacobs, National Theatre Editor and theatre critic for Back Stage and New York Press, is also the mind behind the popular theatre blog, Clyd Fitch Report. Brave soul that he is, Leonard agreed to be our first "Critic on the Spot" by fielding questions from some of our Extra Criticum authors.

Every few days, we'll post a new Q&A between Leonard and one of us. Here's #5 in our series, this one from Gary Garrison.

People Who Need People

So I'm sitting on my porch in Provincetown, really enjoying the 4th of July weekend; great weather, good friends, fantastic fuckin' bar-b-q (I made it, so I can brag) and relaxing before I head to the Kennedy Center for a two week playwriting intensive where I mentor/teach/guide 40 playwrights for all across the country; they're all ages, a wide range of experience, a wide range of interests. They're paying a lot of money to be there, so I try to really deliver the goods while we're together. It's all to say I need to rest up before I get out there because they keep me running pretty much 24/7. And I can usually do that in Provincetown.

But this weekend I have a problem: a ride-by playwright who won't shut up.

Doing It In Your Backyard

Yeah, it's beginning to make more and more sense to me. As I travel around the country and meet more and more artistic directors, literary managers and producers, and I contextualize them in the common cry of most playwrights I know ("We need more productions!"), I'm slowly realizing that if really we want things to change, clearly we'll have to take matters into our own hands.     

I was in Seattle a couple of weeks ago and met with a lot of playwrights and almost twelve (!) members of the producing community there.