Writing in Restaurants - Hardcover

Mamet, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670811408 ISBN 13: 9780670811403

Publisher: Viking Adult, 1986

Synopsis

Temporarily putting aside his role as playwright, director, and screen-writer, David Mamet digs deep and delivers thirty outrageously diverse vignettes. On subjects ranging from the vanishing American pool hall, family vacations, and the art of being a bitch, to the role of today's actor, his celebrated contemporaries and predecessors, and his undying commitment to the theater, David Mamet's concise style, lean dialogue, and gut-wrenching honesty give us a unique view of the world as he sees it.

About this title

About the Author:

David Mamet 's Glengarry Glen Ross won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1984. He is also the author of Writing in Restaurants and On Directing Film, both available from Penguin.

From Publishers Weekly:

Mamet believes the proper function of the actor or playwright in our "dying" civilization is to get to the heart of what is essential in all of us and establish a communion among listeners. He feels that most acting today is mechanical because of society's demand for reassurance that nothing will change, that we are safe. In these short, hard-hitting essays, the well-known playwright (American Buffalo, etc.) delves into the collective mentality of the American theater, which, he maintains, acts as a brake on the creativity of producers and dramatists. Mamet looks at the hidden politics of the theater, how actors are manipulated and controlled by directors. He rails against the electronic amplification of the live stage. Among the themes explored are why radio is a great training ground for writers, theater as an arena for dreams and the subconscious, Tennessee Williams's dramatic mission, and the craze for fashion as a symptom of the middle class's sterile lifestyle and loss of the ability to fantasize.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking Adult
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0670811408
• ISBN 13: 9780670811403
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160