Muse of Fire

Muse of Fire is a collection of the four-time Tony Award-winning playwright’s meditations on the power of theater to change minds by first changing hearts, and on the responsibilities of the playwright as a member of the theater community.

Acclaimed playwright Terrence McNally’s works are characterized by such diversity that critics have sometimes had difficulty identifying the pattern in his carpet. To redress this problem, in Muse of Fire, Raymond-Jean Frontain has collected McNally’s most illuminating meditations on the need of the playwright to first change hearts in order to change minds and thereby foster a more compassionate community. When read together, these various meditations demonstrate the profound ways in which McNally himself functioned as a member of the theater community—as a strikingly original dramatic voice, as a generous collaborator, and even as the author of eloquent memorials.

These pieces were originally written to be delivered on both highly formal occasions (academic commencement exercises, award ceremonies, memorial services) and as off-the-cuff comments at highly informal gatherings, like a playwriting workshop at the New School. They reveal a man who saw theater not as the vehicle for abstract ideas or the platform for political statements, but as the exercise of our shared humanity.

“Theatre is collaborative, but life is collaborative,” McNally says. “Art is important to remind us that we’re not alone, and this is a wonderful world and we can make it more wonderful by fully embracing each other. [. . .] I don’t know why it’s so hard to remind ourselves sometimes, but thank God we’ve had great artists who don’t let us forget. And thank the audiences who support them because I think that those artists’ true mission has been to bring the barriers down, break them down; not build walls, but tear them down.”

Editor’s Preface

Introduction: “‘Flights of the Imagination, Journeys of the Heart’: McNally’s Idea of Theatre”

by R-J. Frontain

Prelude: “Make the Future Our Friend”

I. “The things that connect us and make us human”: McNally on the Theater Arts

* “The World Needs Artists: Juilliard Commencement Address”

* “Where Are the Producers?: Address to the League of American Theater Producers”

* “The Current State of Off-Broadway Theatre”

* “The Perils and Pitfalls Awaiting the Playwright”

* “Random Thoughts of a Librettist, or, Quick! Who Wrote the Libretto for Aida?”

* “Monsters and Pussycats”

* “Zoe Caldwell, Tyne Daly and Other ‘McNally Actors’”

* “Gay Theater? No, Just Life”

II. “Writers write”: McNally on Playwrights

* Oscar Wilde

* Tennessee Williams

* Arthur Laurents

III. “Art with restrictions is a contradiction in terms”: McNally on Censorship

* “Art and My First Dirty Word”

* “A Word from Terrence McNally”

* “Remarks Delivered at a Rally to Support the NEA”

* “Open Letter to Samantha Geller”

IV. “Little, insignificant, magnificent lives”: Testimonials and Memorials

* Ethel Merman

* Edward Albee

* Melina Mercouri

* James Coco

* Ruth Goetz

* Elaine Steinbeck

* Chita Rivera

* Marian Seldes

* James Kirkwood

* Jonathan Alper

* John Kander and Fred Ebb

* Marin Mazzie

* Broadway Theatre and AIDS

Coda: “American Theatre Wing Lifetime Achievement Award Remarks”