David Rabe Professions : Playwright Born : March 10, 1940 Browse All Authors Top 10 quotes by David Rabe I get a sentence, an idea, an image, and I start. I don't know anything beyond it. I follow it. David Rabe sentences knows ideas . . . I do think that deep down, a lot of my work is about people trying to make reasonable accommodations of situations that are insane or absurd. . . . At first I thought the events had power in themselves, that I would just present them. I really wasn't aware of the things that finally became central issues to me - the shifting alliances, the way people hardly even know they've shifted. That part of [A QUESTION OF MERCY] is very familiar to me in terms of my other plays. David Rabe issues play thinking It was a roller-coaster process. For a long time I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn't writing with an outline. And, rare for me, I wrote scenes out of sequence. . . . I didn't understand the play when I wrote it. It was something I'd give in to. It happens to me periodically. I give over and write whatever comes to me and I don't know what it means and then I do. It's thrilling. David Rabe play writing mean I never found a professional environment that made the production of plays efficient. Teamwork is demanded, but there are very few teams. David Rabe professional never teamwork found Often my characters don't know what the issues of the play are. They think they're doing one thing, but something else is actually orchestrating their lives. David Rabe doing think know play My writing was liberated once I abandoned acting. David Rabe once abandoned acting writing There's no demand for a body of work, though writers will be criticized for not having produced one. David Rabe will demand body work Sometimes it's learning how the play wants to function rather than imposing something on it. For me, that's the thrill in directing. David Rabe me learning play sometimes I wrestled with my Catholicism for a long time. It took a long time to escape. It began with a sense that it was repressive, stern, judgmental. It was passionate, but it was terrifying. There were individual priests and nuns who were helpful, but the religion was cold. David Rabe long-time time long religion Choosing to write a play is some kind of surrender. I don't make an outline. I sit and work, and suddenly the door opens, and out it comes. David Rabe door sit play work Similar Authors Alan Ayckbourn playwright Bonnie Greer playwright Annie Baker playwright August Wilson playwright August Strindberg playwright Athol Fugard playwright All Authors
