Theresa Rebeck Quotes

I would like to write a play.

Plays are the marathon of scriptwriting. You fix on a point somewhere in the middle distance, and you start running, and you don't stop until you get to the end. The theory is that you have something you cannot not say: this is the engine that propels you through to the last page.

I think the most important thing when you're telling a story is to just tell the story as best as you possibly can.

When I first read the script a few years ago I thought it was one of the best written scripts I had ever read.

I want to be a part of the stories that need to be told.

I really believe that studying organization, even in the form of studying detective story organization, is very, very valuable for a playwright, a budding playwright.

I mean, I'm in the business of storytelling, not message making.

I think if you're writing a play, it should be its own end game; you'll never get to do a good one unless you know it's not a blueprint for a film; you're not going to get the action right and the story right.

Lizzy Weiss is such a great writer, and she really writes for the performances.

I studied screenwriting at film school and was constantly learning how to construct three-act dramas.

I like the story writing process. I usually use someone who has been trained for structure to take the story that I actually want, place those elements in the right places.

It's hard to write a good play because it's hard to structure a plot. If you can think of it off the top of your head, so can the audience.

For me, a play is a form of writing which isn't complete until it is interpreted by actors. But it's still a form of writing. And so most of my time is spent thinking about how to write a sentence.

All the modern verse plays, they're terrible; they're mostly about the poetry. It's more important that the play is first.

Writing a new play shouldn't be seen as a mystery belonging to a priesthood, but as a challenge, a technical challenge, just to get into it.

Screenwriting is still a challenge for me. It's more technical than creative. You have to be a very good journeyman plumber and put the proper parts together. Then, if you can still inject a little bit of something worthwhile, you have done as much as can be expected.

When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and a dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature.

Writing a play, you have to retain it all in your head - you need more time. With prose, you can snatch an hour here, an hour there.

I find playwriting to be incredibly difficult compared to screenwriting. Part of it is that I grew up watching movies and not watching plays.

I wouldn't know a good script if it bit me in the face.

A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it.

Everyone has a story to tell. All you have to do is write it. But it's not that easy.

Why should I write a play? I don't have to write a play, do I? But somehow, I think that's what I'm here for, so I'd better do it.

I'm not really good at character or plot development. I'm just interested in big comedic moments.

We're constantly trying to find the best way to tell the stories that we want.