Author Description

The author says of this play (which started life as a long poem): "...clumsy constructions, double (and triple) negatives, demented neologisms, and every conceivable combination of out of fashion, dated, or wholly artificial slang. Not to mention argot, cant, the tortured language of the workplace and the pitchman. I explored verbal detritus of every kind. I found to my great surprise that the stuff possessed great expressive power... 'Cellophane' can be done with almost any number of performers (and has been)... Among the many delights of the actual rehearsal process was the discovery that a ghostly narrative would invariably emerge.... I like to think of 'Cellophane', and have described it as such on many occasions, as a spectral portrait and chronicle of America through the medium of bad language."--p.152.