Do You Censor Yourself When Writing?

Jan 01, 2018

Top row L-R: Anne García-Romero, Claudia Barnett; Borrom row L-R: Max Posner, Amy Drake, Stephen Trask

God yes. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect myself to stop censoring. And actually, I think the impulse to censor can be a useful compass. I try to tune my attention to my censorship urges. Because the thing I want to avoid is the thing I should be writing towards. With a balanced mixture of dread, responsibility, and mischief-making, I circle what I’d like to avoid – the tricky things. And then, I kind of coax my writing over towards those things. Sometimes I can’t go straight into them – there are too many thickets – but I like it when a play circles the drain, or zigzags towards that which we’d rather not discuss.

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Max Posner

’s newest play, The Treasurer, recently completed an extended and critically acclaimed run at Playwrights Horizons, directed by David Cromer. Other plays include Judy, Snore, Gun Logistics, and Sisters on the Ground. Fellowships: MacDowell, Sundance Institute, Page 73. Awards: Helen Merrill Emerging Playwright Award. Max lives in Brooklyn.

Anne García-Romero

’s plays include Provenance, Paloma, Earthquake Chica, Mary Domingo, and Santa Concepción. She holds an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. She’s an Associate Professor in the Department of Film, Television and Theatre at the University of Notre Dame. She’s a Resident Playwright at Chicago Dramatists.

Amy Drake

wrote her first play at age five. She is an author, conference speaker, and commercial actor, holding an M.A. degree in liberal studies/English and a M.S. degree in marketing and communication. Her education includes programs at Yale University, Cambridge University, Reed Hall, Paris, and Kenyon (College) Summer Institute.

Claudia Barnett

writes experimental plays about women and history and science, including Aglaonike’s Tiger, about the first female astronomer in ancient Greece, which recently premiered at Venus Theatre. Her plays are published by Carnegie Mellon University Press.

Stephen Trask

is a composer/lyricist. His work Hedwig and The Angry Inch has received many awards including the 2014 Tony for Best Revival of a Musical. He started gaining attention in the early 90s as the out gay lead of the alt rock band Cheater and as the band leader for the original house band at Squeeze Box, a nightclub where a rock band backed drag queens every week. It was there he and John Cameron Mitchell first began developing their show. Trask and his band played in the original production at the Jane Street Theater. After Hedwig, Trask scored numerous indie and Hollywood films, from The Station Agent to Little Fockers. He is currently developing two new shows, This Ain’t No Disco with co-writer Peter Yanowitz and The King of Comedy with book writer Chris D’Arienzo.