Once you have an idea, how do you proceed? Do you take notes? Do you outline? Do you plunge right in?

Outlines, no. Notes, yes. When I “plunge” right in (which happens a lot), I think of it more like an impulse than an “idea.” David Ball’s Backwards and Forwards taught me how to loosen my grip on story. I imagine a theatrically provocative gesture (“something’s on fire” in my play Fin & Euba; “a woman gets pushed out of a boat” in The Gulf) and then I write backwards—literally backwards—from there. I move in an uninterrupted sequence, action by action, in reverse, until the “rise” bottoms out.

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Audrey Cefaly

is a Southern writer known for her intimate, character-driven plays, including Alabaster, Maytag Virgin, and The Gulf. Her work has been produced at Signature Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Florida Rep, Merrimack Rep, and many others. She is a recipient of the Lambda Literary Award, the Calicchio Prize, and the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award.