Muse of Fire

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."

Terrence McNally is five-time Tony Award-winning playwright.
Raymond-Jean Frontain is professor of English at The University of Central Arkansas and author of The Theater of Terrence McNally.

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 Sa