{"id":89233,"date":"2015-08-26T15:33:38","date_gmt":"2015-08-26T19:33:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=89233"},"modified":"2015-08-26T15:58:47","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T19:58:47","slug":"the-plays-the-thing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/","title":{"rendered":"The Play\u2019s the Thing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_89237\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-89237\" class=\"wp-image-89237\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"382\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg 606w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society-300x191.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-89237\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">From a 1939 Work Projects Administration Poster.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Whenever you hear about the death of another specialty bookstore\u2014<small>RIP<\/small> Mystery Bookstore! <small>RIP<\/small> Cookbook Store!\u2014walk over to that unlikeliest bastion of hope, West 40th Street, and breathe a sigh of relief: the Drama Book Shop abides. And it\u2019s not just that the store is a treasure trove of plays and scripts and monologues and a beloved nurturer of theatrical talent, with a Tony Award to prove it. The Drama Book Shop is a testament to one of the few areas where print still reigns supreme.<\/p>\n<p>Newspapers might be threatened by e-readers, technology may have supplanted books, and recipes can be found online in abundance. But scripts? Scripts are<em> necessary<\/em>. Scripts are\u00a0<em>tangible<\/em>. They bow before no millennial\u2019s avowedly shortened attention span. You can highlight on a Kindle, maybe\u2014but can you <em>annotate<\/em>? Can you plunk it down at a table reading? (The answer is yes, obviously, but it would be harder, significantly harder, and that\u2019s not nothing.) <!--more--><\/p>\n<p>If you live in LA, London, New York, or anyplace with a thriving theater\u00a0scene, the sight of people, usually young and optimistic-looking people, poring furiously over scripts is a commonplace; often they\u2019re muttering aloud, which is why you first notice them. And you know they\u2019re preparing for an audition, or learning an off-off-Broadway part, or maybe they\u2019ve even scored a big break. Your heart swells. Recently I heard someone talking to himself on the 1 train and then realized it was a recognizable character actor learning a role from a spiral-bound script.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Show business is tough. It\u2019s wicked. No one makes it. People who do make it have to fight misery and failure at every turn. It\u2019s a life of hard knocks and broken dreams and disappointment and faded glory and misery and narcissism and rage and sordid cynicism so obvious it\u2019s not worth saying. It breaks mothers\u2019 hearts. It breaks hearts, period. And God bless it: as long as there are young people with stars in their eyes and dreams of making it big\u2014or just escaping into a character\u2014there will remain a bastion of the printed word. Which is to say, forever.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><em>Sadie Stein is contributing editor of <\/em>The Paris Review<em>, and the <\/em>Daily<em>\u2019s correspondent.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whenever you hear about the death of another specialty bookstore\u2014RIP Mystery Bookstore! RIP Cookbook Store!\u2014walk over to that unlikeliest bastion of hope, West 40th Street, and breathe a sigh of relief: the Drama Book Shop abides. And it\u2019s not just that the store is a treasure trove of plays and scripts and monologues and a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13115],"tags":[19261,2574,12511,425,9404,19260,605,19262,4213],"class_list":["post-89233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-daily-correspondent","tag-actors","tag-bookstores","tag-city-life","tag-drama","tag-print","tag-print-culture","tag-readings","tag-scripts","tag-theatre"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Last Bastion of Print: The Theatre<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sadie Stein on scripts and drama bookstores.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Play\u2019s the Thing by Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"August 26, 2015 \u2013 Whenever you hear about the death of another specialty bookstore\u2014RIP Mystery Bookstore! RIP Cookbook Store!\u2014walk over to that unlikeliest bastion of hope,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"606\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"386\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sadie Stein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\"},\"headline\":\"The Play\u2019s the Thing\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\"},\"wordCount\":395,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"actors\",\"bookstores\",\"City Life\",\"drama\",\"print\",\"print culture\",\"readings\",\"scripts\",\"theatre\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Our Daily Correspondent\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\",\"name\":\"The Last Bastion of Print: The Theatre\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00\",\"description\":\"Sadie Stein on scripts and drama bookstores.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Play\u2019s the Thing\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9\",\"name\":\"Sadie Stein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sadie Stein\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Last Bastion of Print: The Theatre","description":"Sadie Stein on scripts and drama bookstores.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Play\u2019s the Thing by Sadie Stein","og_description":"August 26, 2015 \u2013 Whenever you hear about the death of another specialty bookstore\u2014RIP Mystery Bookstore! RIP Cookbook Store!\u2014walk over to that unlikeliest bastion of hope,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00","og_image":[{"width":606,"height":386,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sadie Stein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sadie Stein","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/"},"author":{"name":"Sadie Stein","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9"},"headline":"The Play\u2019s the Thing","datePublished":"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/"},"wordCount":395,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg","keywords":["actors","bookstores","City Life","drama","print","print culture","readings","scripts","theatre"],"articleSection":["Our Daily Correspondent"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/","name":"The Last Bastion of Print: The Theatre","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg","datePublished":"2015-08-26T19:33:38+00:00","dateModified":"2015-08-26T19:58:47+00:00","description":"Sadie Stein on scripts and drama bookstores.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/oceanside_high_school_masque_society.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2015\/08\/26\/the-plays-the-thing\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Play\u2019s the Thing"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/a1aef49f81bfc540a37e03590f3bb4d9","name":"Sadie Stein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/147299ffa10db51f1ff44a626a9211650a1c11f8fc07d102ab48e63ab3be037b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sadie Stein"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/sstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89233"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":89242,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89233\/revisions\/89242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}