BWW Celebrates 'The Play That Changed My Life' Day 3 - David Ives

A new book by The American Theatre Wing, The Play That Changed My Life, poses the following questions, "What was the play that changed your life? What was the play that inspired you, that showed you something entirely new, that was so thrilling or surprising, breathtaking or poignant, that you were never the same?" In revelatory conversations, nineteen of today's most gifted playwrights respond sharing personal anecdotes and experiences.

BWW celebrates the launch of The Play That Changed My Life by bringing you excerpts of the book from noted playwrights who discuss the play that influenced them and had a lasting impact on their career and personal lives.

Read an excerpt below from playwright David Ives, author of Venus Infer, currently running through March 7 at Classic Stage Company.

The Play That Changed My Life is edited by Ben Hodges, published by Applause Books and presented by the American Theatre Wing, founder of The Tony Awards. Pulitzer Prize winner playwright Paula Vogel penned the book's introduction.

Excerpt from David Ives,

"I say I was not addicted to theatre, yet it was around that time that I wrote my first play: an adaptation of a pulp crime novel from the 1930s called Mr. Strang. ("The punch packing story of a mysterious individual who sets out singlehandedly to break up the racket of Parole!" says the flap on the foxed and yellowed copy I have before me.)

I cast some of my friends in the supporting parts, I started cobbling a set together in our basement from odds and ends of lumber, and sat down at the dining room table to translate this gory, violent three-hundred-page thriller into scenes with dialogue. In the event, there were three major problems with my plan, never mind wrangling costumes. First, I had no idea it was so hard to turn three hundred pages of gory, violent novel into theatrical dialogue. I ended up with probably ten small notebook pages of handwritten exchanges and convinced myself that that was probably just about right for length. (My first short play, inadvertently.) Second, I had and still have no talent whatsoever with my hands, so that the "set" ended up being a few bent threepenny nails hanging out of some stained two-by-fours, none of which fitted together. Third, I was missing a crucial piece of theatrical information: I did not know that every member of the cast had to have a copy of the script. I learned my lines, I passed the script on to the next guy to learn his, and he lost the script. My scoutmaster, Mr. Lewandowski, was not pleased when the promised production did not appear on the scheduled night. It probably meant he had to haul out some old Indian lore or show us how to tie more knots or something."

From the book's description, "From Edward Albee's 1935 visit to New York's Hippodrome Theatre to see Jimmy Durante (and an elephant) in Rodgers and Hart's Jumbo, to Diana Son's twelfth-grade field trip in 1983 to see Diane Venora play Hamlet at The Public Theater, from David Henry Hwang's seminal San Francisco encounter with Equus to a young Beth Henley's epiphany after seeing her mother in a Green Bean Man costume, The Play That Changed My Life offers readers a unique peek into the theatrical influences of some of the nation's most important dramatists. The book is filled with tributes, memories, anecdotes and other insights that connect past to present and make this volume an instant must-have for anyone who adores the theatre. Also in the book are pieces by David Auburn, Jon Robin Baitz, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Charles Fuller, A. R. Gurney, Tina Howe, David Ives, Donald Margulies, Lynn Nottage, Suzan-Lori Parks, Sarah Ruhl, John Patrick Shanley, ReGina Taylor, and Doug Wright, as well as an introduction by Paula Vogel. All together, the playwrights featured here have won more than 40 Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, Obies, and MacArthur genius grants."

Click here to purchase The Play That Changed My Life: America's Foremost Playwrights on the Plays that Influenced Them on Amazon.com.