Tracy Letts on writing his play and then having to act in it
Playwright and actor Tracy Letts was inspired to write his latest Tony Award-nominated play while watching one of those old black-and-white Frankenstein movies.
It wasn’t the hideous monster or its wide-eyed creator that drew his attention. It was the single-mindedness of the town’s angry villagers.
“The villagers always appear with their pitchforks and torches and they’re completely unified. That really struck me,” he said. “I thought, ‘There must have been a meeting before this among the villagers where one of the villagers voiced dissent and said, ‘No, we should not go after the monster. I think this is the wrong idea for us to form a vigilante mob and kill the monster.’”