The Play Does Not Care About Your Feelings
A discussion with my dramaturg, Carolyn Messina, and ArtsCalling Podcast host Jaime Alejandro
"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
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…
….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!
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 letterTo Speak or Not to Speak?
4 Ways to Create Indelible Non-Speaking Roles for the Stage21 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
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QUICK LINKS TO MY PLAYS
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.
