This collection from playwright Sarah Ruhl might remind loyal readers of TOA (though of course, I'm unlikely to ever write about theater). Interestingly, the title seems slightly off; of the six essays I marked for a second read, I believe half were of 'essay length'; I say Ms. Ruhl finding the time to 'finish' writing some of these pieces would be a very positive development.
100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write by Sarah Ruhl (July 2020)
My experience with the theater is limited to a handful of Almost Exposures - a number of improv performances in New York, a Celtic Social Club concert on the stage of the Norwood Theater, and an English class my junior year that ended with a classmate saying 'exeunt class' (this ticked me off because people laughed like it was funny). Despite my glittering history, the most enjoyable parts of this collection were about the theater. I appreciated the observation that rhyme is a tool used by actors to help remember their lines and enjoyed the essay that pointed out how the the main difference of theater and film is the door - in film, the camera is the door, and strips away the power of entering and exiting a stage. For other scattered observations, you can refer to my book notes.
The most important insight in the book describes how casting uses names as hints for ethnicity; I imagine a play about the life of Tim Concannon might find an actor as Asian as Emma Stone. The theatrical implication of this is seen in the challenge of writing a play about a nonwhite character that isn't about race. In the outside world, I might suggest a connection to studies implying that some hiring managers may benefit if names were removed from resumes.
Of the essays I reread, I thought essay #27 ('The four humors: an essay in four parts') was the jewel in this particular crown, and essay #59 ("It's beautiful, but I don't like it") also stood out from the rest ('On interruptions', 'Conflict is drama?', 'The age of commentary', and 'Writing and waiting'). Despite my admiration, I disagree slightly with the key idea from essay #59, which suggests that we lack the ability to separate beauty from our preferences; the skill that seems lacking from the perspective of a playwright is to me one in overabundance elsewhere, perhaps based on my experiences in competitive collegiate athletics, or various corporate work assessments.
Another of my minor challenges grew from a passage that mused on the lack of stories written from a mother's perspective toward her child. Ruhl points out that although some have wondered about the ability of phallocentric language to tell these stories, she feels it's likely these stories simply aren't being told, or told often enough; I worry that it might be just another manifestation of publishing bias, which I learned about while researching my first 'Hello Ladies' post.
One thought I'll carry with me in the coming months is based on Ruhl's insights into the development process. In short, she claims that a poor process strips writers of solitude in the early days while failing to bring in enough outside perspectives during the final stages. I think it's important to remember that we often jog when we should walk or sprint; the middle path sometimes means appropriately balancing one extreme with its opposite.
