Artful Making: What Managers Need to Know About How Artists Work

is the source of some constraints (materials always constrain

product: If you have clay but no straw, you’d better not try to

make bricks), but a play con-

tains many other materials

(including the actors and their

work). Successful play making

results in wide and interesting

variations among different productions, all consistent with a

given script. No one involved in play making ever seeks to

replicate a previous production exactly, or to conform to any-

thing like a detailed specification.

The Writer’s View of the Script

Writers occupy a strange place in play making. It’s conven-

ient and helpful to think of a script as material for a play, but

playwrights ...