Act 1, Scene 1—writing a play

Plays are a form of storytelling which have come down to us from prehistoric times. I like to think of them as prehysteric times, because being chased around by wooly mammoths and sabertooth tigers was no laugh.

Cavemen and cavewomen had a rough life. Telling and acting out stories in the cave at night was a nice break from hunting, gathering, and outrunning big animals. In fact, a good case can be made for this type of playacting being that old cliché "the second oldest profession."

The oldest profession, of course, is computer book writing. Think I'm kidding? Look at all those cave paintings showing how to program bison and mammoth hunts and the like. Do you believe those writers got paid the big skins and shiny stones like those storyteller actors? Nah.

According to Wikipedia, the first recorded theatrical event in history was a performance of the sacred plays of the myth of Osiris and Isis (ancient Egyptian gods) in 2500 BC in Egypt. That would be over 4,500...