The Dramatist

Landmark Symposium: West Side Story

TERRENCE MCNALLY:  It’s hard to imagine what the musical theatre would be like in 1985 without the efforts of the four gentlemen sitting here with me, the authors of West Side Story. In our theatre community, they are held in great, great respect and much love. West Side Story is the one time these four extraordinary talents came together. I’d like to start with the germ of the idea, the first time somebody said, “Hey, there’s...
Advocacy Newsroom

DG News: Coalition of Creators Requests Collective Bargaining Rights from FTC and DOJ

The Dramatists Guild is a member of a coalition of creative professionals who co-filed a request with the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice for collective bargaining rights on behalf of creators of copyrighted works everywhere, including playwrights, composers, lyricists, and librettists. Such artists continue to suffer in the marketplace due to outdated labor laws that treat them as independent businesses rather than workers, resulting in their inability to protect...
The Dramatist

On Setting

What is setting? It’s defined as; “the space or type of surroundings where something is positioned or where an event takes place” or “the time and place a play, novel or film is represented as happening.” OK, but there is something starchy, hard, and fast about the definition that I don’t like.
The Dramatist

The Rooms Where It Happens (for some)

As a rural southern playwright, I am often isolated from the most vibrant theatre artists in the country even though I previously lived in New York for over a decade and currently work remotely with a New York based collaborator.
The Dramatist

My Two Performance Hit

The world premiere of my play Conversations About an Empty Suit ran for two nights, opening Friday, March 13, 2020, and closing Saturday, March 14, 2020. A play about professional success and failure, it was the biggest hit of my life.
The Dramatist

An Interview with Terrence McNally

Last year, Terrence was interviewed as a participant in the Dramatists Guild Opera Committee's filmed conversation with today's opera creators, "Credit the Librettist."  Terrence was, in fact, a charter member of the Opera Committee. In honor of Terrence's great contribution to the worlds of theater and opera, we are now releasing the full, uncut footage of his interview, filmed by Duncan Wilder and conducted by Michael Korie.
The Dramatist

The Composers of Working

Working was conceived to be different from most “mainstream” musicals, in that it was both a kind of topical revue and non-fiction. It was very important to me and my collaborators that it remain as true as possible—no invented words or situations. But how to organize it so that it felt as if it had a throughline, gained...