Rewrites

I was looking at one of Neil Simon's memoirs: Rewrites. It's mostly about his early career - after he broke out of TV comedy writing, and became a Broadway playwright, in the 1960's.

After he wrote a play he did not have actors read it so that he could listen to it. Rather, he sent it to his agent, or to producers, and if these people liked it they lined up actors, and money... and into out-of-town rehearsals they went, with the playwright on hand to rewrite any parts of the play that "weren't working". Simon, who was writing 3-act plays at the time, seemed to have particular problems with his 3rd acts - with wrapping things up.

He says he never pre-plotted his plays, so I guess it makes sense that he would have particular trouble wrapping things up.

The audience doesn't demand that the wrapping be neat,
but they strongly prefer a sense that the play is complete.