Richard Greenberg
Richard Greenberg
Richard Greenbergis an American playwright and television writer known for his subversively humorous depictions of middle-class American life. He has had more than 25 plays premiere on and off-broadway in New York City and eight at the South Coast Repertory Theatre, including The Violet Hour, Everett Beekin, and Hurrah at Last...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth22 February 1958
CountryUnited States of America
feels standard time volition
When we watch a play under the standard circumstances, we've lost volition and time is passing. A still play feels like an existential threat.
audience dress experience file filing love moment peak people plays seeing start
Frankly, seeing my plays with an audience is something I do with gritted teeth; I find the experience very difficult. I love the moment when you have just the dress rehearsal, when no one's there; that's kind of the peak to me. When people start filing in, I like to file out.
coast revise time usual
My usual route is, I do a play at South Coast Rep, then there's time between and I revise it, and then I take it to New York.
creep hard subtle tried understood
My mother wanted me to be a writer. But she was a child of the Depression and never understood that she wasn't poor. So, you know, the idea of not having a job, it would creep through. But she tried very hard to be subtle about it.
aura catch wanting
I think I can be an intimidating energy in the room. I think I come in with an aura of wanting results because as the playwright, I know how it goes, and there's the thought, 'Why can't they catch up?'
expected people time
I think I'm a writer, and it's my job. People in other professions are expected to do their jobs all the time. Why shouldn't I?
stopped
I thought if I stopped writing, ... the world would explode.
felt fully touchstone
For some reason, 1968 is a touchstone year for me. I think it was the first year I felt fully conscious.
slower
I do think the past changes at a slower rate. It sits a little more still for its portrait.
occur scenes sequence tends
I don't write a play from beginning to end. I don't write an outline. I write scenes and moments as they occur to me. And I still write on a typewriter. It's not all in ether. It's on pages. I sequence them in a way that tends to make sense. Then I write what's missing, and that's my first draft.
rupture
The idea of a rupture between acts occurs in a number of my plays.
settings
The implication is that these settings would actually be hospitable to life,
But you don't have your druthers in life, do you?
ambition play crafts
A play gets on Broadway by fluke. And you don't even start out with that ambition. When I do a play, the intention is just to put it up somewhere.