For Linney, the awards are not the reason he writes. He wants to make the connection with his audience through his work, to allow flesh and blood to see flesh and blood.
"The theater can do things that no other art form can," he says. "The theater can put something that seems unbearable in front of you, and you are bettered by it. One cannot escape the end of A Lesson Before Dying, one can’t escape the inevitable conclusion that an innocent young man will be executed. As you go through the play, you learn how this young man grows, how he transcends his situation.
"And people will see this firsthand. Theater is about flesh and blood facing flesh and blood in the same room. You don’t get that in film."
For Linney, the process of writing plays is one of transcendence and growth as well, and as he works with the cast during rehearsals of A Lesson Before Dying, he’s also thinking about future works. "In your career, you always have various works in various stages of completion," he says. "I have several projects that I’m working on, from plays to short fiction. You put something down because it’s not working, and then you can come back to it years later. And maybe you can get it right."
