Adam-Richter.com

I understand George Lucas. 

For a long time the “Star Wars” creator vexxed me with his seemingly unending retconning of the trilogy. I didn’t understand how an artist could change their work after it’s been released into the world, and they no longer had sole ownership of it. 

In my career as a journalist — both writing stories and editing other people’s stories — the idea of revising meant fixing a few errors or rewriting a sentence or two in the minutes before press deadline. So when I started writing plays, I took the same approach: Write in short bursts, make slight adjustments but otherwise leave them to be read, or not. 

More often not.

I think my initial dismissal of Lucas stemmed from a misunderstanding of art, especially from the creator’s point of view. The beautiful, maddening fact is:

Art is never finished. 

Neither is “Banshee.” 

My play about monsters, memory and family is set to have its world premiere May 1-10 at the WCR Center for the Arts in Reading, Pa. It’s my first full-length to get a full production. Rehearsals start in early March. 

We had the first table read with the cast last week. Hearing it aloud — in the voices that will perform it in front of audiences — exposed some flaws and rough edges that still need to be fixed before this is ready for performance. 

I should point out, this is hardly the first draft. “Banshee” began life as a 10-minute play, written in haste one February morning in order to complete a writing challenge. It was five scenes, each one page, mostly in monologue. 

Then it kept growing. 

In 2024 the Reading Theater Project presented “Banshee” as a staged reading, and even then it was a one-act play. In the months that followed I added more depth to the characters, added more characters and put necessary scenes where none had been before. Some time in 2025, the play took on its current length and structure: five acts and nearly 2 hours. 

It’s still not quite ready. 

I’m confident that the play will be ready for audiences once the curtain goes up on May 1. The cast and production team are incredible, and their feedback is driving this latest revision. I only hope I don’t fall into the George Lucas trap of constant rewrites, long after “Banshee” has been loosed on the world. 

Until that point, my red pen may run dry with all the changes I have in store.