The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: Writing in Restaurants, David Mamet

Writing in Restaurants

David Mamet

"Essays in direct line from Stanislavsky, Chekhov, Shaw, and Brecht"
--Mike Nichols

A collection of essays from Pulitzer Prize winning playwright David Mamet adressing many issues in contemporary American theater

Temporarily putting aside his role as playwright, director, and screen-writer, David Mamet digs deep and delivers thirty outrageously diverse vignettes. On subjects ranging from the vanishing American pool hall, family vacations, and the art of being a bitch, to the role of today's actor, his celebrated contemporaries and predecessors, and his undying commitment to the theater, David Mamet's concise style, lean dialogue, and gut-wrenching honesty give us a unique view of the world as he sees it.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • Publish Date: Oct 1st, 1987
  • Pages: 160
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.74in - 5.08in - 0.49in - 0.32lb
  • EAN: 9780140089813
  • Recommended age: 18-UP
  • Categories: Theater - GeneralDramaEssays

About the Author

David Mamet's numerous plays include Oleanna, Glengarry Glen Ross (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award), American Buffalo, Speed-the-Plow, Boston Marriage, November, Race and The Anarchist. He wrote the screenplays for such films as The Verdict, The Untouchables and Wag the Dog, and has twice been nominated for an Academy Award. He has written and directed ten films, including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, State and Main, House of Games, Spartan and Redbelt. In addition, he wrote the novels The Village, The Old Religion, Wilson and many books of nonfiction, including Bambi vs. Godzilla: On the Nature, Purpose and Practice of the Movie Business; Theatre; Three Uses of the Knife: On the Nature and Purpose of Drama and the New York Times bestseller The Secret Knowledge: On the Dismantling of American Culture. His HBO film Phil Spector, starring Al Pacino and Helen Mirren, aired in 2013 and earned him two Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Writing and Outstanding Directing. He was co-creator and executive producer of the CBS television show The Unit and is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company.

Praise for this book

"Essays in direct line from Stanislavsky, Chekhov, Shaw, and Brecht"
--Mike Nichols

"Writing in Restaurants is rich with anecdotes . . . composed in precise mellifluous language."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Passion, clarity, commitment, intelligence--just what one would expect from Mamet"
--Sidney Lumet

"Graceful, forceful, hortatory essays of a profoundly moral writer of our time"
--Richard Christiansen, Chicago Tribune

"Among the themes explored are why radio is a great training ground for writers, theater as an arena for dreams and the subconscious, Tennessee Williams's dramatic mission, and the craze for fashion as a symptom of the middle class's sterile lifestyle and loss of the ability to fantasize." -- Publishers Weekly