That said, Mike Bartlett's theatrical script is strangely alien.
"They had never read a theatrical script, the majority hadn't gone to school, and some didn't even speak Serbian," he said.
As writer Amanda Long discovered, the experiences of chaperones at a prom — a setting where adults are both looking out for the next generation and reflecting on their own youth, a place where past and present waltz together — can make for a poignant, theatrical script.
Through references to actual counties and towns served by the Ogallala aquifer, to pesticide-induced cancer clusters, to a publication on water supply as political power, and to the routine presence of center pivot farms, we know this theatrical script of insider O'Gare and outsider Ken resides in a real world.
Yet it has been performed twice in Dubai, where homosexual acts are illegal and a government agency must approve all theatrical scripts before they are produced.
Mr. Brown has made movies, written theatrical scripts, produced Off-Broadway plays and, most profitably, made deals in commercial real estate around the world.
They are probably best regarded as short dramas to be read, which means that the book resurrects an old theatrical tradition – especially in Scandinavia – of theatrical scripts, such as Ibsen's, being released first as publications rather than productions.
Correspondence, research and lecture notes, catalogs, newspaper clippings, scripts, theatrical programs, photographs, audiotapes, manuscripts, and other papers.
His drawers are stuffed with Playbills, theatrical programs and scripts dating back to the 1970s and meticulously organized by location (Broadway, Off Broadway), category (workshops, readings) and date.
The typographer's essential task is to understand, interpret and communicate the text - its tone, tempo, logical structure, physical size - just as a theatrical director interprets a script, or a musician the score.
"This is just a theatrical play with a script written in advance and predetermined results," said Liu Xiaoyuan, a Beijing lawyer who once represented dissident artist Ai Weiwei.
