Focus on playwrights: portraits and interviews

In 1989 Susan Johann was hired to photograph Christopher Durang for a magazine article about his play Naomi in Her Living Room. The playwright was known for his outrageous comedy, so Johann anticipated a session with a rather wild, young eccentric. To her surprise, the man who came to her studio was mild mannered and buttoned down. Johann found this twist captivating, and it was then that this project was born. Over the ensuing twenty-year period, she photographed more than ninety playwrights, including many winners of the Pulitzer Prize and other prestigious awards. Johann photographed Wendy Wasserstein, Anna Deavere Smith, August Wilson, and Nilo Cruz in the weeks after they won the Pulitzer. Tony Kushner sat for his portrait between the productions of part 1 and part 2 of Angels in America. Eve Ensler came to Johann's studio during the week she was previewing her famous one-woman show, The Vagina Monologues, and George C. Wolfe sat for her the morning after his play Spunk opened at the Public Theater. Each playwright was photographed in Johann's studio using the same film, a single light, and a plain backdrop, creating a portrait that captures and distills something essential--an intimate view. Her interviews explore the writers' personal and creative journeys including their inspirations, roadblocks, and obsessions, which influenced their work on paper and on the stage. Even those who know Edward Albee's plays intimately, for example, may be surprised by his incisive wit and inimitable voice as revealed in his interview with Johann. -- ‡c From publisher's description.

Includes index.

Interviews/Text: Prologue -- Deceptive simplicity: an introduction / by Alexandra C. Anderson -- What we were, what we are: a dialogue with Marsha Norman and Christopher Durang -- August Wilson -- George Abbott -- Romulus Linney -- Nicky Silver -- Wendy Wasserstein -- A.R. Gurney -- Robert Patrick -- Marsha Norman -- Craig Lucas -- Christopher Durang -- Sidney Kingsley -- Sarah Ruhl -- Arthur Miller -- Garson Kanin -- Christopher Shinn -- Edward Albee -- Acknowledgments -- Index of playwrights -- About the author -- Photographs: Edward Albee -- Bill Irwin -- Beth Henley -- John Schenkar -- Ed Bullins -- Seven playwrights -- Spalding Gray -- William Finn -- August Wilson -- Steven Drukman -- George C. Wolfe -- Polly Pen -- Eduardo Machado -- Sybille Pearson -- Tom Stoppard -- Adam Rapp -- John Ford Noonan -- George Abbott -- Abbott's country desk -- Romulus Linney -- Nicky Silver -- Jeffrey Hatcher -- John Patrick Shanley -- Suzan-Lori Parks -- Adrienne Kennedy -- Reinaldo Povod -- Sam Shepard -- Keith Glover -- Wendy Wasserstein -- A.R. Gurney -- Robert Patrick -- Carl Hancock Rux -- Naomi Wallace -- Michael Weller -- Maria Irene Fornes -- David Ives -- Al CArmines -- Neil LaBute …