New Zealand's leading playwright, Roger Hall. Photo / APN

Roger Hall has seen many changes in NZ society during his long career in theatre.


Now imagine this. To go to work, you only have to cross the floor of your apartment. You can settle down at your desk, turn on the computer and off you go. If you get bored, well, you can change rooms and look right out across the beach at Takapuna. Or you can stroll down to the beach cafe and get a coffee to help with the inspiration.
Piece of cake this writing business, isn't it? Think up a storyline, put down a few lines of dialogue, pack up early for the day if you don't feel like it and, eventually, sit back while the dollars roll in as audiences roll in the aisles of the nation's theatres.
What a doddle, what a way to make a living.
No wonder Roger Hall, New Zealand's leading playwright, icily admits: "I blew my top at one journalist for not doing his homework before an interview".
So, in the interests of self-preservation, what follows here is a real insight into the world of the playwright and his endless wrestling with the written word.

"I do admit, when I am writing, I can't wait to get to the computer to start work.
"As soon as I get up I want to get underway. I may only do an hour - in the early stages [of a play] - sometimes that's all you can do because you don't know where you're going with it

"It's the rewriting at the end where you have to put the hours in. You get sick of it. Middle Age Spread was difficult because of the time structure. Basically, it's the evening of a dinner party. Things slowly creep up and it all merges at the end.
"I do most of my writing here in Auckland. But if I were dreaming, I'd say I would like to have an apartment in New York. I do love New York."
He is far and away this country's most renowned playwright. Yet even for such men, the writing business still contains its disappointments. Take America.
Full piece at NZH.