| Contents | |
| | |
| Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | ix |
| Introduction: For Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | x |
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| PART 1 | |
| FOR YOUR HEART | |
| You're the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 2 |
| Skippy, Jake, and the Spitfire Within . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 9 |
| Thump It Before You Buy It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 17 |
| Sing Out, Louise! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 21 |
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| FOR YOUR SOUL | |
| Spandex, My Bicep, and Writer's Block . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 27 |
| The Ties That Bind Us: Mother, Mentor, Father, Teacher . . . . . . | 31 |
| I've Been to the Dark Side (And Now I Want the Light) . . . . . . | 36 |
| Tina Turner, Lanford Wilson, and Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 41 |
| Flush It (An Internal Monologue) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 45 |
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| PART 2 | |
| FOR YOUR HEAD | |
| Grilled Cheese Ain't Just a Sandwhich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 50 |
| Who Are All These People and What Are They Doing to My Play? . . . | 56 |
| Gauged Bleedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 73 |
| Who Needs an Agent!? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 79 |
| New York Hits Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 85 |
| Instruction or Destruction? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 88 |
| Submitting Your Plays: The Most Necessary Evil . . . . . . . . . . | 93 |
| For the Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 101 |
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| FOR GOOD MEASURE | |
| Basic Dramatic Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 104 |
| Show Me How to Do It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 110 |
| Give Me the Facts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 117 |
| Just... Think on It . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 122 |
| I'm Withholding My Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 130 |
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| PART 3 | |
| FOR YO' MAMA | |
| Behave! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 135 |
| Slap Yourself . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 140 |
| An Open Letter to Those Who Love and Support Us . . . . . . . . . | 142 |
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| Afterwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . | 144 |