In the Playwriting issue of READ, we excerpted our interview with Jonathan Dorf, author of Young Playwrights 101. Here is that interview in its entirety.

READ: When you start writing a play, do you have the whole story already figured out in your head? Or do you write and see what happens?
Dorf: I'm somewhere in between. I tend to work from a "concept," which in my case means that I have a sense of the characters, what they want and the conflict or "problem" of the play. Often, I'll have images for moments in the play, and a sense of how--or with what picture or "note" (I find it's helpful to think of plays as pieces of music)--I want the play to end. It's then a question of figuring out how we get there, which still leaves plenty of room for creativity and spontaneity, and it's possible that the play will change based on discoveries I make about the characters and their world as I write.

READ: Do you find that most of your characters are modeled after you and your own experiences?
Dorf: No. While some playwrights tend to put themselves in their plays--for example, Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill is autobiographical--I am definitely not one of them. To me, it's much more fun to invent a character than it is to recycle my own life and put it on stage. This isn't to say that I don't take moments, images or characters that I've witnessed and put them in my work. For example, there was an older, mentally disturbed man who used to rant what I always imagined was Shakespearean language outside Harvard Yard. He found his way into my play Ben as a woman named Lady Shakespeare. Of course, aside from his ravings, I didn't know the real person at all, so I created an entire life for the character that worked in the context of the play.
     Some people will tell you to "write what you know." But there are so many fascinating and wonderful things out there, and if we all could only write about what we have personally experienced, we'd be limited indeed. So I believe in writing what I can learn about. For that same play, Ben, having never been a homeless teenager like the play's main character, I observed life among the street kids in Harvard Square, read books about the subject and even spent a semester volunteering at a youth shelter. No, there's no sign of me in the play, but there is a playwright who did his homework before he started writing.

READ: What do you think is the main purpose of a play?
Dorf: Aristotle talked about the purpose of plays being to teach and, in doing so, to please. More than two thousand years later, I'd say he's still got the right idea. Good plays tell stories that ask questions that make us think about our own lives. Good plays don't give us the answers. I always cringe when I hear people talking about the "moral" or the "lesson" of the play, particularly when talking about plays for youth. To me, those aren't plays--they're lectures--and they don't sufficiently respect the intelligence of young people. For example, my play After Math, which is performed widely at schools, examines the disappearance of a boy from math class and the gradual discovery by those left behind that they had never really noticed him until he was gone. There's no stern lecture or a teacher who walks in and scolds everyone for not paying better attention, no prescription for how to treat your classmates or the other people in your world, just a whisper on the wind at the end of the play that perhaps we could have done better, "And if it's too late to be undone, what can we do for the next one?" It's much easier to start a discussion with a question than it is with an answer.

READ: How much do you leave to the audience's imagination and how much do you explicitly provide?
Dorf: I believe in giving an audience most of the sentence, figuratively speaking, and letting them finish it. If the playwright provides too much information--a big problem for beginning writers--particularly by having characters tell us everything that they're thinking and feeling, the play tends to feel too much like a therapy session, and the audience becomes passive; everything is laid out for you, and the play no longer demands your attention. We don't need to know everything that happened to the characters to get them to this moment, and keeping some secrets and mysteries in a play is a good way to make sure the audience stays engaged and wants to find out the answers. Also, since most theatres don't have enormous budgets, I try to write plays that can be staged minimally, without expensive sets. Whereas film usually tries to make the action seem as if it's really happening, the fact that plays take place on a stage means that audiences are already accepting the convention that things won't be exactly like real life. So why not let their imaginations do some work?

READ: What's your favorite play that you wrote and why? What's your favorite play by another playwright and why?
Dorf: I don't really have one favorite play of my own, as I have many that I enjoy for different reasons. For example, my play about bullying, Thank You for Flushing My Head in the Toilet and other rarely used expressions, has a seemingly frenetic pace and harnesses comedy to approach a serious issue, and yet suddenly the "Bluebird" monologue sneaks in and catches the audience off-guard--and then their experience becomes very different. War of the Buttons, inspired by the novel by Louis Pergaud, is set in a working-class American town where the main industry, an ice cream factory, has failed, and the town is plunged into ruin. But in the struggle of the town kids to fight off the incursion by a nearby prep school, there's a little magic amidst the ruin. My frustration with War of the Buttons is that the cast is mostly male--as was the novel--and so it doesn't get produced as much as it should. Plays like Shining Sea I love for the iconic images--for example, a Winnebago--it creates, whereas Yard Wars I love just because a one-man show about backyard wrestling is an awful lot of fun. Yes, the actor really does wrestle himself.
     It's just as hard to settle on only one play I love by another writer, when there are so many. Angels in America is amazing for its fearless imagination and vastness of scope, and I love how Kushner takes his fictional characters and then crashes them into a world littered with real historical characters and supernatural ones. I love Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee for its musicality, even in the twisted, vicious relationships that Albee creates. A play like Mother Hicks by Susan Zeder creates such a vivid picture of its Depression-era world, but in a way that is magical, with a compelling young protagonist and the equally compelling and mysterious Mother Hicks. I love Zeder's use of the chorus to give us a sense of the social milieu, with the ensemble adding to the already beautiful "music" of the play. And, of course, there are many plays by Shakespeare that I love, but more about that later.

READ: Why is conflict so important in plays?
Dorf: We watch plays to see characters struggle, to have some obstacle they must overcome. If there were no obstacle, there'd be no reason for the play to continue or even to exist in the first place. For example, if I need that bag of money sitting on the table to pay my rent and nobody's going to stop me from getting it, I can simply grab the bag and go pay my rent. But if another man needs that bag just as badly as I do, now we have a play.

READ: How much or how little has Shakespeare influenced you?
Dorf: Shakespeare has probably influenced most writers in one way or another. It may be the tight plotting of his comedies, or the unforgettable characters from his tragedies. References to his plays abound in literature and popular culture. What I appreciate most about the Bard is his amazing use of language, and interestingly enough, among my favorite plays are the histories. For example, Richard II, not nearly as famous as the Richard that came after him, has some of the most dazzling language. Among my favorite moments are Richard's lines when he learns that Henry Bolingbroke has taken up arms against him:

For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd
To lift shrewd steel against our golden crown,
God for his Richard hath in heavenly pay
A glorious angel: then, if angels fight,
Weak men must fall, for heaven still guards the right.

Another favorite is when Bolingbroke, now Henry IV and speaking to the murderer Sir Pierce of Exton, after the murder of Richard at his bidding:

They love not poison that do poison need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.

That's powerful stuff, and it's no surprise that it endures to this day.

READ: What is your favorite thing about playwriting?
Dorf: For me, there's no better feeling than sitting in the back of a darkened theater and watching an audience watch one of my plays. Whether they laugh, cry or simply sit and take it in, that's why I write.

Many of us think of the American Indians in November as we celebrate Thanksgiving. And during that time, we are reminded of the great contributions they have provided our country.

Did you know that Iroquois chiefs were invited to speak at the constitutional convention? They shared the Iroquois model of government with Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and George Washington which our founding fathers incorporated into our own system.

American Indians were also the first to discover popcorn. It's true! After building piping hot fire on the beach, they would move the wood and embers away and place the corn kernels on the hot sand until it popped! Bet you never heard that in Social Studies class.

One of the most important contributions that American Indians continue to provide to the entire world is their stories. If you've haven't had the chance to read any Native American literature yet check out The Shadow Brothers by A.E. Cannon or The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich. Native American literature is rich with culture and traditions of people who perfected living off the land by communing with nature. Almost all of their stories stem from the ancient myths that have been passed down through generations.

What is a myth?

A myth is story that attempts to explain something about the world and that expresses an important belief or value of a culture. Some myths reveal how the universe was created while others explain things like why it is important to value your family. Myths can be very interesting because they often include supernatural beings like gods, goddesses, or trees and animals that can talk. Myths aren't about history or facts... they express inner truths—what we feel inside our hearts.

The very best thing about Native American myths is that they are a great source of inspiration. Writing your own myth can be a lot of fun because you can be as creative as you want to.

Check back in a few days to learn how to write your own modern myth!