The actor John Lithgow’s new memoir is Drama: An Actor’s Education.
From Lithgow's Q & A with Barbara Chai at the Wall Street Journal's Speakeasy blog:
Why did you decide to write a memoir?
In fact, there was another stage, the first thing that happened was the solo show. The experience was so intense and so important to me and it was all involved with the telling of a fantastically funny story. That’s the ironic thing. Reading P.G. Wodehouse to my father. So I did the solo show, which was very autobiographical, and it was only then at the suggestion of other people, that I had the impulse to write the memoir. I had never had the courage to write that frankly about myself and communicate it to people, and it really reached them, and it really moved them, and I thought well, yes, I think I can do this. That was three years ago, and there have been many moments in the intervening time when I thought nope, I can’t do it. [laughs]
Was it painful?
Not too painful, it’s just such a massive project to write a long-form book. The only way to do it is just go chapter by chapter and the book begins to take shape as you write it. I didn’t know that, I thought you had to know exactly where you were going. I discovered that’s not how it works. If you think you know where you’re going, then you’re wrong.
Some will read this book as an acting manual.
To a certain extent it’s...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue
