Was adapting the work of one of the most respected playwrights in the English language daunting?

Yes, it was.

How did you work through that?

Well, first of all, you use as much of his dialogue as you can. Whenever I would write just one line of new dialogue I would comb through the whole play to find out what word that character would use. But slowly I didn't have to do that. After a while you look things up after you've written the scene, just to check it out.

In addition to adapting, you've written original plays, directed plays and acted in them. Has one of those activities made you better at any of the others?

Probably. But it's so indiscernible. You'd have to go back and act in all of the plays without having done all of the other things to find out. I think when I started to direct I became easier as an actor for other directors to direct. ... There was a time when I was a pill.

Really! Talking to you now, I can't imagine you being a pill.

Oh, I would get all into that actor stuff. "I don't understand why I'm doing this!" That kind of thing. And sometimes it's perfectly valid for an actor to ask those questions, and at times it makes things better. When I did it, it wasn't always completely valid.

You directed Elizabeth Taylor on Broadway. Did she have any pill moments?

No, she was a lamb. I think there's something about starting as a child actor, as she did. When you are a child actor, and a very good one as she was, you do what you are told. ... I mean, she's intelligent, and she'll ask you questions if she doesn't agree with something you're suggesting. But she's the opposite of a diva.

Is Chicago a better theater town than New York?

Well, yeah. I think so. Yeah. Every once in a while New York has a great year. But I think things are set up in a more healthy way in Chicago. New York theater is like the Dow Jones. It soars, it takes off, it collapses around you. There's a certain stability in Chicago theater, in both the people who put it on and the people who attend it. Because of that, it's able to be more creative, in effect. People in the audience and on stage tend to not be jaded. And there's an openness. There's a common interest in taking a unique trip together in Chicago.