Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

Theatre 79
1.
1. Neil LaBute is working on the Wrecks script
in his Los Angeles–area office, with his
extensive DVD collection shelved above
him. The painting on the wall is a color
rendition of W. Eugene Smith’s well-known
photograph “Walk to Paradise Garden,”
which LaBute bought at a flea market.
“I thought it was the perfect thing for my
office,” the playwright says, “because the
characters are turned away from us, and I
always felt that was how I write, that you
can never know a person completely, and
they always have their back turned to you
in a way.” © Robert Cohen
2. Writing is rewriting. LaBute’s Wrecks
script looks at first like something of a
wreck itself, but it shows the extraordinary
amount of revision most writers do to
perfect their scripts. Wrecks, at the time
this photo was taken, had already had
its world premiere in Ireland and a run in
New York, both directed by the author.
Even so, LaBute continues to work on
it—deleting, adding, and revising individual
lines and making notes on each
page of the manuscript. © Robert Cohen
2.
3. A one-time professor of drama, LaBute
often returns to the classroom. Here he is
working with a student from the University
of California–Irvine on a writing/acting exercise
of his own invention. © Robert Cohen
3.