Episode 86 (How Playwrights Hear Their Characters’ Voices)

The March 2025 episode of In a Manner of Speaking is the first to feature a playwright. Paul Meier discusses how playwrights hear their characters voices with Pulitzer Price-nominated James Still.

Paul and James also discuss the art of playwriting in general and read from James’ plays A New World and The Heavens Are Hung in Black.

James Still’s plays have been produced throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa, China, and Japan. His new plays include Everybody’s Favorite Mothers (workshopped with Launch Pad); The Cratchits (in America); Haunt Me (commissioned by American Blues); and a new commissioned play with Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Lowell, Massachusetts. James also directs, and next up is The Glass Menagerie at the Indiana Repertory Theatre.

He is an elected member of both the National Theatre Conference in New York and the College of Fellows of the American Theatre at the Kennedy Center. He received the Otis Guernsey New Voices Award from the William Inge Festival, the Todd McNerney New Play Prize from Spoleto, and the Indiana Authors Award for Drama for his trilogy The Jack Plays. His plays have been developed at New Harmony Project, O’Neill Conference, Sundance, Seven Devils, Colorado New Play Summit, Launch Pad, Fresh Ink, and many others. He is a four-time Pulitzer nominee for his work in the theater and a five-time nominee for his work in television. He is an artistic affiliate at American Blues in Chicago and lives in Los Angeles.

Like Paul, James has roots in Kansas, having graduated from the University of Kansas. For more information about James, see Wikipedia. And for more interviews with James, see the embedded videos below:

(Bach’s Cello Suite #1 in G Major BMV 1007 Prelude (by Ivan Dolgunov) is courtesy of Jamendo Licensing.)

The post Episode 86 (How Playwrights Hear Their Characters’ Voices) first appeared on Paul Meier Dialect Services.