Tales from the Crypt by Willona Sloan I was suspicious about seeing a play entitled Dead White Authors because I feel somewhat disillusioned by the extent to which the core curriculum of my English degree centers on the scrutiny of such authors. The deliberate exclusion of living and ethnic authors leaves a conspicuous void. The play does, however, seek to reveal the universal struggles of authorship to aspiring writers. Dead White Authors is a minimalist production consisting of four chairs and very little action, centering on a conversation between Edgar Allan Poe, Gertrude Stein, Tennessee Williams, and Emily Dickinson. Tennessee Williams reminisces about meeting movie stars, the trials of working for MGM Studios, and his sexuality. Stein recalls letters to her brother, the rejection of her first novel, and teaching Hemingway a thing or two about sex. Dickinson is not in the same world as the other writers -- whenever there is a break in conversation, she launches into a recitation of a letter to her brother, a diary entry, or lines from her poetry. She turns away from the other writers when she speaks, exhibiting a self- consciousness I soon tired of. Poe functions as a moderator by asking questions of the other writers while also sharing his own experiences. The theme of the play focuses on the process of summoning the creative spirit and translating passions into written words. For these dead white authors, writing is a necessity; it is an obsession. Writing provides both ecstatic pleasure and agonizing torture. The authors converse about the struggles of authorship and the evils of criticism. At times, I identified with their experiences of trying -- and failing -- to summon the creative spirit, and with their anxieties about originality, success, fame, poverty, and insanity. Yet there is no conflict in the play. The authors all seem to agree on every topic of conversation, and they move seamlessly from one narrative to the next without teasing out any tensions. It struck me as strange that people from different centuries, genders, classes, and worlds all agreed so perfectly on every issue. There seemed to be a great unifying force between these dead white writers. They are all writers by nature; Tennessee Williams dramatically states, "I write because I have to." His colleagues nod in agreement, lost in their own memories. This necessity to communicate controls their minds and souls. Williams describes the process of creating a narrative as an essential struggle for survival. Dickinson recalls a period when her doctor forbade her to read or write and she almost went mad. When finally able to resume her work, she felt as though she had been liberated from prison. Though the characterization was believable, I felt excluded from the play. While I could identify with the anxiety of wanting, needing, and failing to write, I felt as though there was no space for me to step in to the conversation. The literary circle was closed. Being a writer requires a certain amount of insanity, as writers continually expose themselves to brutal introspection and public abuse from readers and media critics. An author would have to possess an uncontrollable desire to write to bear such abuse. Dead White Authors gently ridicules the sanity of the author. The authors glibly exchange stories of nervous breakdowns as though telling jokes about themselves. The play dispels the myth of the "starving artist." Williams says, "Anyone who says poverty is good for the soul was never poor for very long." A writer does not starve because of a deep desire to suffer for the sake of art, but rather because she or he cannot afford to eat. The authors relish their success and stardom while satirizing their periods of extreme poverty. Dead White Authors seeks to show four writers casually engaging in conversation. These authors lived in different centuries, worked with different media, and had vastly different experiences, yet passion for their work binds them together. The conversation expresses the intense anxieties of being an artist; these anxieties about originality, creativity, and success pushed them to write tirelessly until death. In life, they sought to overcome these fears and to conquer the blank page; many times they were successful.

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