Playwrights Writing for TV

[Sylph]

[Khan]

Playwrights leaving theater for TV? That's preposterous. Show me a (former) playwright who has quit writing for the stage altogether in order to write exclusively for television and/or movies. Even writers such as John Logan and Aaron Sorkin who have made bundles of money working in other arenas return to the stage eventually. That's b/c, most writers enjoy working in more than one medium; and theatre remains the only one where it all comes down to what's on the page and who puts it there. No script, no show.

Besides, Marsha Norman forgot about Edward Albee. ;-)

Love Theresa Rebeck's quote at the end of the article, though: “Going to TV doesn’t ruin your writing,” she said. “You know what ruins your writing? Not writing." True that, girl.

[Sylph]

What I find interesting-depressing is that never before were there so many superqualified (r perhaps it's just that it seems they are on the surface.) writers in the business, yet so much awful television around. It should have had an opposite effect, but I guess it ended up being classified under one of Andre Keen's paradoxes.