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Quotes by Playwrights
Quotes by Playwrights
Somehow I got to be one of five or six actors that the directors would use as guinea pigs at this directing colloquium, where people pay to listen to and watch the directors direct.
Beth Henley
People
Pay
Guinea
Guinea Pigs
Would
Direct
Somehow
Directing
Directors
Pigs
Got
Five
Listen
Six
Where
Use
Actor
Watch
The impetus behind going to graduate school was a year after graduating from college spent in Dallas working at the dog food factory and Bank America and not having met success in my chosen field, which at that point was being an actress.
Beth Henley
Success
Food
Dog
School
College
Met
Year
Field
Spent
Having
Point
Factory
Impetus
Dog Food
America
Graduate
Going
Graduate School
Bank
Behind
Graduating
Being
After
Which
Working
Chosen
Actress
Dallas
The next thing I wrote was in a writing class at night school. It was about a poor woman who worked at a dime store and who was all alone for Christmas in Laurel, Mississippi.
Beth Henley
Christmas
Alone
Class
Woman
Writing
School
Dime
Laurel
About
Mississippi
Wrote
Store
Poor
Worked
Next
Next Thing
Who
Thing
Night
Then I went off to Southern Methodist University in Dallas. They had a really wonderful theatre department.
Beth Henley
Theatre
Wonderful
Had
Methodist
Off
Southern
Department
Then
Really
Dallas
University
You can't just go in there and open your mouth until the cast and director feel comfortable with you.
Beth Henley
You
Director
Mouth
Cast
Open
Feel
Until
Comfortable
Go
Just
Your
My dream was always to have an experience where an audience member would turn to another audience member, a stranger, and be like, 'What did we just go through?' And, like, kind of begin to talk.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Experience
Member
Kind
Dream
Would
Through
Like
Talk
Another
Audience
Always
Audience Member
Go
Begin
Did
Just
Where
Turn
Stranger
I have this thing called hereditary neuropathy with liability to pressure palsies. It's incredibly rare.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Pressure
Rare
Incredibly
Thing
Hereditary
Liability
I was 23 when I wrote 'Neighbors,' and I definitely look back at it now and cringe a little bit. I was trying to understand what drama was.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Drama
Back
Bit
Cringe
Definitely
Neighbors
Look
Wrote
Understand
Trying
Little
Little Bit
Now
The first theater subscription I ever bought was the August Wilson season at Signature. I remember thinking a whole season to one playwright was a great way for a master to do a victory lap.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Great
Remember
Victory
First
Master
Thinking
Playwright
Way
Signature
Wilson
Bought
Great Way
August
Subscription
Theater
Lap
Whole
Season
Ever
I tried writing a novel, but plays were the thing that kept feeding me, asking me to come back, sit down and be with them.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Me
Writing
Sit
Down
Back
Tried
Feeding
Come
Were
Them
Asking
Novel
Thing
Kept
Plays
I don't hate people who colour-blind cast, but I hate people who colour-blind cast and pretend that they're not, who pretend that these bodies on stage don't actually carry specific meaning.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Hate
People
Stage
Carry
Pretend
Cast
Meaning
Bodies
Who
Specific
Actually
I wrestle in a big way with August Wilson's work in that I at times admire it and at times feel infuriated by it, which is weirdly more influential than loving someone entirely.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Work
Big
Way
Wilson
Admire
Someone
Wrestle
Entirely
More
Feel
Weirdly
August
Times
Than
Big Way
Influential
Which
Loving
I'm not a really firm believer in theatre that is 'about anything.' I don't think theatre can be about anything other than the people who show up and the value that they hold.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Theatre
People
Value
Think
Other
About
Firm
Firm Believer
Up
Than
Hold
Anything
Really
Show
Who
Believer
I actually don't read the press. All the writers I admire were significantly reclusive, and I'm still trying to figure out how they got to a place where they didn't have to talk to press.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Press
Reclusive
Out
Admire
Writers
Talk
Read
Got
How
Still
Were
Trying
Where
Place
Figure
Actually
The stuff I write about doesn't, like, necessarily leave people feeling warm and fuzzy. I'm writing in a territory that's, like, contested and full of prickliness. And I find that people project their problems onto me or something.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Me
People
Writing
Problems
Feeling
Project
Fuzzy
Find
About
Something
Onto
Write
Stuff
Like
Territory
Contested
Leave
Warm
Full
Necessarily
I love television, and my love for it has made me curious about writing it. It feels like television's moving toward something more novelistic, and that's what I started wanting to do. But I can't say that I'm dying to get notes from a studio. The artistic control that you get as a playwright is worth its weight in gold.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Love
Me
You
Writing
Worth
Made
Control
Playwright
Say
Television
About
Something
More
Weight
Studio
Toward
Feels
Like
Curious
Get
Artistic
Gold
Wanting
Dying
Moving
Notes
Started
My mother had a wall of degrees in our house, and she would walk me up to the wall and say, 'When you have this many degrees, you can tell me what to do.'
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Me
You
Mother
Walk
Our
Say
Tell
Would
Degrees
Had
House
She
Up
Wall
Many
I have a borderline-embarrassing obsession with pop music.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Music
Obsession
Pop
Pop Music
Somehow, whenever we think about race or blackness in relationship to art, we always come in kind of nervous. We always think someone's about to be punished or accused of something.
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Art
Relationship
Nervous
Think
Punished
Kind
About
Somehow
Blackness
Someone
Something
Come
Always
Accused
Whenever
Race
Something that happens to me is that I'll write a play specifically from my own experience, and then I'll inevitably be told that I'm being tunnel-visioned about it. People always ask, 'What about that other race? Or discrimination toward those people?'
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Me
Experience
People
Own
Other
Those
About
Something
My Own
Write
Toward
Always
Inevitably
Discrimination
Being
Happens
Race
Ask
Then
Play
Specifically
How do we refresh our language? Why do we still use, like, a 150-year-old classification system to talk about people? It's so weird! We still call people black and white?
Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
People
Language
Black
Black And White
White
Our
System
About
Classification
Weird
Like
Talk
Call
How
Still
Refresh
Use
Why
The blush is beautiful, but it is sometimes convenient.
Carlo Goldoni
Beautiful
Sometimes
Convenient
Blush
Noble bold is an accident of fortune; noble actions characterize the great.
Carlo Goldoni
Great
Accident
Characterize
Noble
Fortune
Bold
Actions
He only half dies who leaves an image of himself in his sons.
Carlo Goldoni
Half
Only
He
Sons
Himself
Leaves
His
Dies
Who
Image
A wise traveler never depreciates their own country.
Carlo Goldoni
Wise
Country
Own
Never
Traveler
Advances in technology will continue to reach far into every sector of our economy. Future job and economic growth in industry, defense, transportation, agriculture, health care, and life sciences is directly related to scientific advancement.
Christopher Bond
Life
Future
Health
Technology
Agriculture
Care
Will
Job
Every
Defense
Related
Our
Sector
Directly
Economic
Economic Growth
Advancement
Advances
Economy
Reach
Industry
Health Care
Sciences
Scientific
Continue
Far
Transportation
Growth
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