Acknowledgments

We continue to be deeply indebted to Craig Purinton for his indefatigable devotion and tenacious encouragement and to Bill Baynes for his keen and caring editorial input on the first edition. We cherish the memory of Henrietta Yusem, who generously shared her years of experience with us.

We acknowledge the friends, colleagues, mentors, and occasional muses who have shepherded our professional souls. Jim nods to Kimberly Webb, Meryl Shaw, Amarante Lucero, Fred Adams, Deb Dryden, Paul Dixon, Donavan Marley, Des McAnuff, John and Helen Meyer, Tony Howarth, Ken Denison, Carey Perloff, all of the wonderful people who he’s worked with at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, and to the memories of Ellen Rush, Dan Dryden, and especially Michael W. Leibert.

Deena acknowledges Phil Lee and Jeff Bush for the safe haven of Full House Productions; directors Tazewell Thompson, Roger Danforth, Richard Termine, and Ron Daley for their creative playgrounds most particularly Doug Kaye the entire population of “Quinnland” David Gaines and Kiki, Jack Scott, and my many students whom I learn from every day, with my special thanks for having tracked my progress and cheered me on throughout this process. This edition is a tribute to the memories of my beloved mother Aïda Kaye, Raymond Marciniak, Frank Wittow, Carl Williams, and Colette Bergé. I am especially grateful to my remarkably talented son, Miles Purinton, who for the past 19 years has shown me how to hear more keenly and creatively.

David acknowledges the incredible patience and support of my family, Karen, Kate, and Meghan and the countless opportunities to develop as a person and designer that were provided by Marvin Ravikoff, Mark Lamos, Mel Marvin, Irene Lewis, Richard Hamburger, Bronnislaw Sammler, my students, Athol Fugard, José Rivera, and all the other playwrights who have provided me with the medium to further explore the human condition.

We appreciate all our kind contributors for their interests, insights, and support, most notably Charles Coes, Eric Dachs, Linda Kalin, Dennis Parichy, April Rodriguez, David Ross for his expert legal advice, and special recognition of Erik Zyman Carrasco for his art and techniques of linguistics. Thank you to Richard Barber for your counsel, and a tip of the hat to Joe Payne, Nick Strong, and Keith Heffner, the technical reviewers who shared their knowledge with us. Their insights from having used our book and reviewed the updates for this edition gave us terrific guidelines.

Our collective gratitude goes out to the amazing staff at Focal Press, a truly wonderful publishing house that unconditionally supports its authors. Lauren Lavery and Tina Adoniou helped make our second edition a reality. And, finally, we offer special thanks to Cara Anderson, Danielle Monroe, Andre Cuello and Diane Heppner who patiently and lovingly helped birth our third edition.