It’s 1939 and producer David O. Selznick’s new film Gone With The Wind is in trouble. The new director and screenwriter are convinced the movie will flop, but Selznick, undeterred, sequesters himself in the office with them to rewrite the script, emerging days later having wrested order from chaos. Their raucous arguments about artistic compromises, commercialism, the politics of race, and even the closing line of the movie are agitated, funny, but always impassioned—vividly showing that the backstage drama of creating enduring art can be as engaging as the art itself.  Rated PG-13 for language and subject matter.  Some material may be unsuitable for preteens.

Moonlight and Magnolias. a comedy by Ron Hutchinson runs from June 3 through July 3 at the Altarena Playhouse in Alameda, CA.