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Tell Neil LaBute and Teresa Rebeck what to do.
Published: 9/9/2011 12:48 PM
Last Modified: 9/9/2011 12:48 PM

The Los Angeles Times has conscripted Neil LaBute (whose plays "bash" and "Reasons to be Pretty" have been performed in Tulsa) and Teresa Rebeck (author of "Mauritius" and "Loose Knit") to write a play together in real time on the paper's "Culture Monster" blog.

At the website, which can be found here, readers can vote on six different situations for the proposed play. The set-up that receives the most votes will be the one LaBute and Rebeck will use -- although the writers won't be told what the scene is until 1 p.m. Tuesday (3 p.m. Central), when they are to begin writing.

People can watch the two writers at work, then participate in a talk-back session at the end.

This is by no means the first time writers have done something like this. The short story writer Harlan Ellison wrote stories in real time in the display windows of book store, or during the course of a radio program, reading the finished piece to conclude the broadcast.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Robert Olen Butler has written stories in real time online as part of his work as a teacher at Florida State University.

But the stunt that may have originated all this watching-the-writer-write business never happened. Georges Simenon, the Belgian novelist who created Inspector Maigret and wrote literally hundreds of books in his career, was talked into writing a novel in the course of a week while enclosed in a glass booth. But the plans fell through, although the legend that Simenon accomplished the task persisted for years.


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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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