The Lanford Wilson Issue: Table of Contents and Finis

By Isaac Butler

The Lanford Wilson Issue:

I introduce the Issue here.

Jannie Wolff discusses beauty, empathy, Lanford's work and knowing him as an intern at Circle Rep here.  

Carl Forsman and Jonathan Silverstein discuss Lemon Sky here. 99Seats celebrates their production of it here.

Playwright Alessandro King discusses how Wilson's work shaped him as a playwright here. 

99Seats on the Talley Trilogy.

Rob Weinert-Kendt on The Hot L Baltimore.

Sergei Burbank on Rimers Of Eldritch and growing up. 

Laura Axelrod on her time at Circle Rep.

Also check out some videos about Hot L Baltimore, some quotes from Wilson, a PBS Newshour Clip about him and some other writing around the web.

Thank you so much for reading along this past week, and an extra special thanks to Mark Armstrong for all of his support. We'll start up regular blogging alongside planning the next issue on Monday.

And now, an epilogue, one that-- in Wilson time-bending fashion-- takes us back to the beginning, in his own words:

One day in Chicago I was working in an ad agency and started a new story. I said, you know what?--this doesn't sound like a story, this sounds like a play.  I got halfway down the page, no more than that, and said-I'm a playwright. It was just as clear as day. I had an actual talent for writing dialogue and no talent at all for writing narrative. Writing down the way people spoke in a room was suddenly incredibly exciting. It was one of those life decisions where you know immediately—you're never going to get to the bottom of this thing. And what more could you want than something that you're never going to—that's never going to satisfy you completely? And I just saw this as an enormous, great challenge that was going to be worth banging away at for the rest of my life.

Comments

[George Hunka]

Congratulations, guys -- an excellent issue. Looking forward to the next.

[Isaac]

Thanks, George! I've (mostly privately) gotten a lot of positive response to it, so I look forward to doing the next one as soon as 99 and I settle on a topic.

[George Hunka]

No problem here saying it in public, Isaac. Well done.

[The Mentalist on dvd]

No problem. That was the first show I fell in love with. I was so sad to see it go off the air - it could have gone on forever. But yes, I do think some of the first eppy's female audience were persuaded just a tiny bit by that old Belthazor-lawyer hunk-of-McMahon!