In this interview segment, playwright Joe DiPietro explains his method for creating theatrical worlds. He begins by emphasizing that a story must stem from an obsessive personal interest; he cites his Memphis‑set interracial love story set in the 1950s as an example of a subject that captivated him. DiPietro describes how this obsession keeps the material alive in his mind throughout daily activities, allowing ideas to surface spontaneously. He stresses the importance of reading the script aloud, often with an assistant or a small group of friends, to hear the dialogue “dance in the air” and to force himself to commit to his choices. These live read‑throughs become a collaborative feedback loop where friends experience the work for the first time and provide immediate reactions. The overall message is that deep personal investment and vocal rehearsal are essential tools for refining a play.
Go through the process of how you create that world, going into your subconscious, finding these characters.
Generally, it starts with a subject that I'm really gotten obsessively interested in. And sometimes I've done everything from historical subjects to just a plot that I have an idea about. Like, for instance, Memphis, you know, that was a subject and a time period that I really thought, this is a really interesting time in American history. And putting an interracial love affair in the segregated South in the '50s is a really interesting story for me. And there's just a lot going on. So I basically got obsessed with that story. And that's really how I can write. Like, I can't write if I'm pretty much interested in something. I need to be really— every once in a while I've done a couple things where I really wasn't— my heart wasn't quite in it. I was interested in it, but my heart wasn't quite in it. And I think it always sort of shows. Like, I think you need to be obsessively into it so even when you're going about your day and not writing, it's still in the back, it's still percolating. And you're in the shower, you're at dinner with a friend and you're like, "Oh, wait a minute. She said this to him instead of that." And then I know I'm onto something if I can't get it in my head.
Do you have your friends act it out for you?
No, but I do actually believe in reading it out loud. So I sometimes, like myself with I have an assistant, so right now he'll always read it out loud with me, even if it's, you know, 10 people. Like, we'll just sort of go back and forth because plays are meant to, you know, dance in the air. The words are not— are meant to dance in the air, and they need to dance in a certain way. So, and you don't know that until you read it. And if I'm reading it myself, I'm sort of forcing myself to commit to what I've written, which is really a very powerful tool for me to use in writing. So I'm a firm believer, and I've actually had like invited over friends saying, I have this new thing, oh, let's dinner and then we'll sit and we'll read and we'll see what we think and I'll hear it in the air.
And that's exciting for them too. They're getting to see their work for the first time. Yeah, it's fun.
I just did it with a brand new play with the director Kathleen Marshall who's going to direct it and she yesterday came over and we sat and we read it aloud to each other and, you know, she said, "This is a really fun way of doing this." She goes, "Usually I get a script and I have to read it alone and, you know, but now—" And we heard it and we heard what worked and what, you know, I wanted to still work on. So I would recommend that to anyone, reading your own work out loud.
