Скачать или смотреть Lanford Wilson on Redwood Curtain (1993)

Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Lanford Wilson sits down to discuss his Broadway-bound play Redwood Curtain (opening March 30, 1993).

Inspired in Humboldt County, California, Wilson discovered Vietnam veterans living “behind the redwood curtain” and shaped a modern fairytale about an Amerasian piano prodigy searching for her father and a traumatized vet (played on Broadway by Jeff Daniels). He talks about blending realism with a touch of magic, how character comes first and plot follows, and why dialogue is his easiest door into a play.

Wilson reflects on Circle Repertory Company, long collaborations with director Marshall Mason, rewriting from Seattle to Philadelphia to San Diego to Broadway, and the way recurring themes—lost souls, chosen families—surface only after the writing is done.

He recalls writing Burn This with John Malkovich in mind, the tug-of-war between comedy and drama, and how routine finally appears once a play “finds him.”

00:00 – Clip from Redwood Curtain and introduction
01:12 – Why Wilson rarely does TV and what “entertainment” means to a playwright
02:30 – Origin story: Humboldt County, vets “behind the redwood curtain,” and the spark
03:58 – Shaping a modern fairytale: an Amerasian prodigy, a vet in the woods, a touch of magic
05:43 – What the play is really asking: reintegration, fatherhood, belonging
06:26 – Pace of writing vs. years of rewriting; dialogue as the easy part
07:03 – Night writing, day sleeping, and how routine returns once the idea lands
07:40 – The recurring Wilson theme others see: lost souls seeking family
08:22 – Biography under the work: abandonment, surrogate families, theater as home
09:30 – How a play starts: a character with a “beef,” then the second voice, then conflict
10:10 – Writing for staging with Marshall Mason; images vs. pure dialogue
10:50 – Will he watch it nightly? On letting the show breathe after opening
11:09 – Comedy vs. drama and why “funny every line” can exhaust the elbow
11:49 – Comparisons to Chekhov; writing speech that sounds like life, heightened a notch
12:56 – Influences from Dickens to Brendan Behan; chasing circus and stage magic
13:35 – From Seattle Rep to Broadway: cuts, clarity, specificity, and cleaner magic
14:16 – Characters who try to run away with the play
14:57 – Burn This: conceiving the “wild hair,” writing with Malkovich in mind
15:57 – Broadway date: March 30 opening

Playwright Discussion is a curated archive of interviews with the great voices of theater, literature, and stagecraft. From Broadway icons to emerging playwrights, we explore the artistry and ideas shaping dramatic storytelling.

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