Hello and welcome. My name is John August, and you're listening to Episode 685 of Script Notes,

a podcast about screenwriting and things that are interesting to screenwriters. Today on the show,

screenplays and stage plays are superficially similar. They both consist of scenes with characters

talking to each other. So why do they feel so different, and why is it often so challenging to move something from one format to another?

To help us explore these questions, we are joined by writer-director, showrunner, and playwright,

Leslie Hylund, best known for creating Russian doll on Netflix, along with the accolade on Disney Plus.

She wrote and directed Bachelorette, adapted for Roan Play, and she's coming off of a Broadway writer for her acclaimed play Cult of Love, which I got to see in New York and absolutely loved.

So I'm so excited, Leslie, Leslie, Leslie Headland.

Thank you. What an intro. Gosh, it's so nice to be here. I didn't realize you'd seen the play.

I saw the play. So here's how I saw the play.

So I was in New York because we were doing a new version of Big Fish and we were there for the

rehearsals and the 29 hour reading basically of Big Fish. And Andrew Lippa, who is the composer

lyricist of Big Fish, is a Tony voter. And so he said, oh, hey, I need to go see a bunch of stuff. Come with me. I'm like, great. I'll go to anything you want to see. literally I come into the theater and there is this gorgeous set,

like the prettiest set I've ever seen on a stage play,

and I absolutely loved what I saw on that beautiful set.

Oh, yeah.

The set was designed by John Lee Beatty,

who is an absolute legend in terms of set design.

Yeah, I had a really, I would say, clear vision for what the set would look like,

that it would have that Fannie and Alexander touch to it.

There was a play by Annie Baker called John

that took place in a bed and breakfast

...