Playwrights at Work (Modern Library)
This, the third in a series of reprints from the Paris Review (after Best Writers at Work and Women Writers at Work), is an intriguing primary-source collection of interviews with 16 renowned playwrights. The pieces start with a Thornton Wilder interview in 1956 and continue with Lillian Hellman (1965), Samuel Beckett (1987), Tennessee Williams (1981), Eugene Ionesco (1984), Arthur Miller (1966 and 1999), Neil Simon (1992), Edward Albee (1966), Harold Pinter (1966), Tom Stoppard (1988), John Guare (1992), Sam Shepard (1997), August Wilson (1999), David Mamet (1997), and Wendy Wasserstein (1997). The resulting essays are varied owing to the different approaches of both interviewer and playwright, but, overall, this is an excellent gathering of brilliant minds in the theater, and these interviews provide significant insight into the works of the writers. A great addition to literature and theater collections.DJ. Sara Paulk, Coastal Plain Regional Lib., Tifton, GACopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.