Terrence McNally
Terrence McNally
Terrence McNallyis an American playwright, librettist, and screenwriter...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth3 November 1938
CitySt. Petersburg, FL
CountryUnited States of America
blessing thinking rights
I may think I have inalienable rights to be alive and happy, but I don't - life is a blessing.
writing thinking people
Whenever you think you're writing what other people want to hear from you, and that it'll be commercial, you're doomed to disaster. Writing has to be as truthful and specific as we can make it. The minute we think that we're reaching more people and pleasing them, we get general. And audiences sense that and turn away, shun us.
writing play firsts
Work with good directors. Without them your play is doomed. At the time of my first play, I thought a good director was someone who liked my play. I was rudely awakened from that fantasy when he directed it as if he loathed it. . . . Work with good actors. A good actor hears the way you (and no one else) write. A good actor makes rewrites easy. A good actor tells you things about your play you didn't know.
callas
In those days, you had to like one or the other. You couldn't like Sutherland AND Callas.
writing play nervous
There are so many rules about play writing. I'd have a nervous breakdown if I followed them.
mom people kind
Young people have got to start their own theaters, really. All good theater is a kind of mom-and-pop operation. Start your own theater.
heart writing play
Write plays that matter. Raise the stakes. Shout, yell, holler, but make yourself heard. It's time for playwrights to reclaim the theatre. We do that by speaking from the heart about the things that matter most to us. If a play isn't worth dying for, maybe it isn't worth writing.
reality thinking talking
I don't think I've ever written anything even remotely naturalistic. The closest probably would be seen as 'Frankie and Johnny,' and that's only 'cause they eat a sandwich and make an omelet in act two. But it's a romantic fairy tale, and I'm very aware of that. I don't think it helps the actors in my plays to lose themselves in the reality of talking to another person. A good McNally actor always knows he's in a play with an audience.