How To Playwright

Share this post

The Play Does Not Care About Your Feelings

audreycefaly.substack.com

Discover more from How To Playwright

Audrey Cefaly's playwriting techniques and insights from 20 years as a professional playwright.
Continue reading
Sign in

The Play Does Not Care About Your Feelings

A discussion with my dramaturg, Carolyn Messina, and ArtsCalling Podcast host Jaime Alejandro

Feb 17, 2023
4
Share this post

The Play Does Not Care About Your Feelings

audreycefaly.substack.com
Share

"People will ask, what's the trick, how did you break in and I recognize that not everybody has that person in their life. They want to get in the room with collaborators and then develop those relationships and it's really hard. I would say, to stop sharing your work with just the "yes-men." Share it with somebody who might not be your best friend, he might not even be the person that you trust the most that won't hurt your feelings, but is the person that is gonna tell you like it is. And then when they tell you like it is, believe them. You went to them for advice in the first place. And I think that playwrights in particular need to get over their own feelings, because the play does not care about your feelings. It doesn't. So you need to not care about its feelings and you need to not care about your own feelings. The work needs to be more important than your feelings."

Listen to the full podcast https://t.co/Of5puS6n0s.

AUDREY CEFALY IN THE NEWS
I’ve opened a new Art Shop featuring stickers and mugs and other goodies inspired by my stories. Take a look! https://www.audreycefaly.com/shop

Sticker: Take Me To Your Writers

My play Trouble (at the Vista View Mobile Home Estates) (available to read on NPX) was named a “featured finalist” for the Blue Ink Award…

ABOUT THE BLUE INK AWARD FOR PLAYWRITING

….and will kick off this year’s Appalachian Festival of New Plays next week at Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA. Hope to see you there!

Thank you for reading! This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

PREVIOUS ARTICLES BY AUDREY CEFALY

  • 52 Vocabulary Words for Playwrights
    A collection of weird and unusual words for the things we do as playwrights.

  • 10 Things Playwrights Wish Their Actors Understood
    A love letter

  • To Speak or Not to Speak?
    4 Ways to Create Indelible Non-Speaking Roles for the Stage

  • 21 Things I Know About Playwriting
    I wrote my first play twenty years ago. I wrote my second play one year later. Here are 21 things I learned in the year between the two.

LEAN MORE ABOUT AUDREY

  • @audreycefaly | Linktree

  • Visit my website for more about me and the work I do!

  • Purchase my plays from Concord Theatricals.

  • Follow me on Facebook.

  • Follow me on Twitter.

  • Follow me on Insta.

QUICK LINKS TO MY PLAYS

Alabaster

The Gulf

The Last Wide Open

Maytag Virgin

Trouble


Audrey Cefaly's plays (Alabaster, Maytag Virgin, The Gulf, The Last Wide Open, Trouble) have garnered the Lammy Award, the Calicchio Prize, the Edgerton, and a Pulitzer nomination. Her works have been produced at Signature Theatre, Cincinnati Playhouse, Barter Theatre, Merrimack Rep, Florida Studio, Florida Rep, Gulfshore Playhouse, and countless others. Cefaly is a Dramatist Guild Foundation "Traveling Master," an Arena Stage playwright cohort, and a recipient of the Walter E. Dakin Fellowship from the Sewanee Writers Conference.  She is published by Concord Theatricals.

4
Share this post

The Play Does Not Care About Your Feelings

audreycefaly.substack.com
Share
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Audrey Cefaly
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing