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" Denver's commitment to giving contemporary storytellers the stage is crucial to the American theater. That's something embraced by 'Smash.' We should be telling our own stories. "

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" You have to respect who the character is. It has its own internal truth, and you can't betray that. And if you don't betray that, it will not betray you. "

Theresa Rebeck

Own

Who

Truth

" I'm actually interested in poor behavior. I'm interested in what drives people to poor behavior. "

" Honestly, the thing that I have found to be most useful over a long career, or maintaining a long career, is taking back the power at some point and self-producing. "

" Heath Ledger's recent death, like that of River Phoenix, was handled with great care by the press. Anna Nicole Smith's not so much. "

Theresa Rebeck

Phoenix

River

" It's one of the central problems of American culture: telling you if you're younger, more beautiful, more famous, whatever, that then you'll be happy. "

" Some people think big audiences are crass and that, say, a comedy that appeals to a wide audience is pandering. Other people would argue that you could say that about Moliere. "

" One thing I won't do in television is a sitcom. I find that world to be so neurotic and bizarre. "

" Rarely do I try to pull a creature out of life and make it a character. "

" We need theatre that is contemporary, lively and relevant, and the only way to do that is to take care of our playwrights and produce their plays. "

" Theater is a public space. It is a spectacular space. It is a gathering place. "

" The economics of theater are painful. I still think that the theater community should be looking much more rigorously at how to let the playwright keep the money they make. "

" The stage gives you more control over your own work; in television, there's a distressing amount of communal writing. Unless it's your show, you have no control over that. You're at the mercy of whoever's running the show. "

" Moliere and Arthur Miller affected me at a very young age. In adulthood, I became overwhelmed by Chekhov. Those are my big theatrical influences. "

" I'm not afraid of just cranking it out and seeing what comes out of my subconscious. Because I don't always know what I'm feeling. I do a lot of rewriting later. But that first blast feels like a spigot - like it's coming from somewhere else. "

" Show business is a struggle. I certainly wish that I had just blasted on the scene and not had quite such a hard time. But there's a great sense of the relief in that you don't have to prove yourself anymore. "

" Our distorted media culture sees men as subjects and women as objects; in films, Woody Allen gets older and older and still dates 20-year-old babes; movies about women are called 'chick flicks,' and men make fun of them. "

" When I was a staff writer on 'NYPD Blue,' it was truly my job to hear David Milch's voice for that show and to deliver episodes that embodied that voice. "

" Art is great. At its best, it engages the intellect and challenges the spirit; it connects us across history and reminds us of our humanity. "

" When people tell me I'm a prolific writer, it's a nice thing to say. But I think to myself, 'Yeah, but I don't do anything else.' "

Theresa Rebeck

Myself

Think

" I am curious about a lot of things. I'm perplexed and engaged. "

" I think new plays are vastly more surprising and challenging and inspiring; I hear from audiences all the time that they are delighted when they see plays about the world we live in now, at this moment. "

" I go to museums. I buy art, even. You should see my house; we don't have any wall space left. "

" I was born and raised in the Midwest, where people were taught that decency and integrity and community were all important values. We were democrats with a little 'd.' "

" I work hard. I like getting to the end of things. And I write my plays that way. "

Theresa Rebeck

Hard

End

" Theater can be elusive and poetic, but it doesn't thrive when it doesn't reach an audience. "

" When I go to Ohio to visit relatives on holidays, I am often astonished by the level of casual dismissal offered up by way of discussion. "

" Part of the problem with producing contemporary political theater in America today is that many theaters don't have flexibility or resources, be it hiring a lot of actors or staging a work that might be tough for some audience and board members. "

" I seem to be constantly confronted by theater professionals who are more or less annoyed by the prospect of structure. "

Theresa Rebeck

Structure

Seem

" I often find it maddening to live in America, in a way that is both amusing and horrifying to me. America clings to versions of itself that are absolutely hypocritical. I can't shake my outrage at it, so I write about it. "

" Spielberg read the 'Understudy' and decided that was the voice he wanted to write 'Smash.' He wanted a story that had humanity and humor and high-stakes dreams. "