After Shakespeare, who is above us all and more like a God
than a favorite?
Shaw
Stoppard
Williams
Churchill
Miller's a Monument, commands my respect but doesn't need me
to love him. Chekhov is loveable, but I'm not comfortable claiming
a writer I know only in translation-- if I were, there'd be
Greeks on my list. I am baffled by Fornes, who is clearly a
formidable artist but always 'feels' to me as if I am hearing
her voice through a veil of translation. I love Thornton Wilder,
but there's not Enough of him play-wise to make the top of a
list. Naomi Wallace and Tony Kushner seem me to me to have tremendous
talent which may, with luck and a little institutional support,
eventuate in a world-class body of work.
But then I have seldom-produced writer friends about whom I
could say the same thing. I say it about myself maybe twice
a week. The luck and support is crucial. Ayckbourn seems to
me the perfect example. A writer of modest natural talent who
rooted himself in a company and an audience and has grown and
grown to just below the first rank. I'm fortunate in that a
local company, the Lyric Stage (when under Ron Ritchell and
Polly Hogan) specialized in Ayckbourn and I got to see samples
of his growth on stage regularly. (8/13/05)
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