New York, NY -- Newly minted Tony winner Simon Stephens is a prolific playwright with two shows on the New York stage at the moment: Best Play winner "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" and off-Broadway’s "Heisenberg." Playwright Simon Stephens said: "If anything can ruin a play, it’s words." His other works include the gritty Punk Rock, Port, Wastwater, Harper Regan, Pornography, One Minute, Carmen Disruption, the Olivier-winning On the Shore of the Wide World and many, many more. Stephens recently invited Broadway.com to his downtown hotel room (with an awesome view) to talk process, preparation and Chekhov. What time of day do you write? I tend to do a normal working day that’s built around the family. I take my kids to school then go up to my office, where I work from 10 to five. I think you only really need to do about four hours a day of work as a playwright. Our work is not defined by a word count. It’s not like being a novelist where you need to write 10,000 words a day or whatever. . . . . http://www.broadway.com/buzz/181208/tony-winning-curious-incident-playwr...
On Writing : The Stage: Tony-Winning Playwright Simon Stephens tells what can ruin a stage play by LindaAnn Loschiavo
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"If anything can ruin a play, it's words," says Simon Stephens. Do you agree with him? Is his statement too simplistic?
Yes, it's a terrific interview. Poor stage management can also ruin a play (as I've mentioned in recent reviews).
Excellent point, J.C., about translations gone awry! From one of my drama critiques, you can see what else goes wrong onstage . . . http://www.lideamagazine.com/nightbirds-on-ninth-avenue-review-of-all-go...
Stunning ineptitude! There was so little furniture on stage that they could have left a table-chair set-up hidden behind a curtain -- and then only moved the curtain (quietly) out of the way. Other critics mentioned the same NUISANCE in their reviews. Just dumb.