Working: Why Writer Ayad Akhtar Reads Shakespeare Every Day

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4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2020

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, host Isaac Butler talks to playwright Ayad Akhtar about dream journals, beginning the workday by reading Shakespeare, and other creative rituals and techniques. Then Ayad discusses the origins of his new novel, Homeland Elegies, and explains how he was able to blend autobiographical elements with fictional ones. After the interview, Isaac and co-host June Thomas talk about one of Ayad’s mentors, legendary theater director Jerzy Grotowski. In the exclusive Slate Plus segment, Ayad recommends two books that transformed the way he thinks about writing. Send your questions about creativity and any other feedback to working@slate.com or give us a call at (304) 933-WORK. That’s (304) 933-9675. Podcast production by Cameron Drews. If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on Working. It’s only $35 for the first year, and you can get a free two-week trial. Sign up now to help support our work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody it's Tim Heidecker you know me Tim and Eric Bridesmaids and
0:03.4	Fantastic Four. I'd like to personally invite you to listen to office hours live
0:07.8	with me and my co-host DJ Doug Pound and Vic Berger.
0:12.3	Howdy.
0:13.0	Every week we bring you laughs, fun, games and lots of other surprises.
0:16.4	It's live, we take your Zoom calls.
0:18.0	We love having fun.
0:19.0	Excuse me?
0:20.0	Vicks said something.
0:21.0	Music, music.
0:22.0	Music. I like having fun. like to laugh I like to meet people who can make me laugh
0:29.0	Please subscribe
0:31.0	No Subscribe no. the book had gone and I told her I couldn't write any more material because I didn't
0:46.1	know where the mind of this book had gone and I didn't recognize anymore the person who had written it.
0:53.7	The language, the syntax, all of it, which was so effortless during the
0:57.7	composition, evaporated.
0:59.6	Welcome back to Working. I'm your host June Thomas and I'm your other host Isaac Butler.
1:07.0	Isaac we just heard the voice of A
1:13.2	Dactar, who you spoke with this week. But before we get to that wonderful interview,
1:15.2	this is the first time we've chatted since you submitted your
1:19.2	manuscript, which is of course a cultural history of the method.
1:24.2	Are you still thinking about Stanislavski
	...

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