“I remember years ago climbing up to the fly gallery of the Globe (now the Gielgud) Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue. It was the final night of Ten Times Table. The set was due to be struck and a new set brought in and fitted up. This new set was also for a play of mine, Joking Apart. For about three days (and some nights) I watched as dozens of stagehands, painters, electricians, stage managers and prop makers swarmed across the stage, first dismantlng one set and then assembling the other. The director in me watched with fascination while somewhere inside, the writer was silently screaming: My God, what have I started?”
Alan Ayckbourn, The Crafty Art of Playmaking
Terry Teachout on the arts in New York City
