Tag: Drama

• October 28, 2013

  Tom Stoppard vs. Richard Rorty

  I read a quote from the playwright Tom Stoppard about his view of playwriting. ‘My whole life,’ he tells his interviewer, ‘is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.’ This view of things, albeit clever-sounding, is backward. Some years ago, I read something very different in in one of Raymond Geuss’s books.…
• March 22, 2013

  A comparison of the genre of drama with that of philosophical inquiry

  Compare a couple of the playwright David Mamet’s reflections on drama (the full text is available here) with my own thoughts about the genre of philosophical inquiry. (To read an excerpt from my book, The Art of Inquiry, go here): Mamet: We know any drama ends when we find the answer to the question which gave…
• March 9, 2012

  ‘The fingers on the face reside on the face’: A short dramatic performance

  This week, one conversation partner put a copy of Bruce Mau’s “An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” into my hands. The “Manifesto” contains 43 design statements. My eyes came to rest on no. 39: Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. Real growth often happens outside of where we intend it to, in the interstitial spaces–what Dr. Seuss…