Perspectives / Regina Taylor Actress and playwright Regina Taylor won a "Best Actress" Golden Globe for her portrayal as Lilly Harper in the television series I'll Fly Away. She won the American Critics' Association new play award for Oo-Bla-Dee. Other works include A Night in Tunisia, Escape from Paradise, Watermelon Rinds and Inside the Belly of the Beast. Reading was always an important part of our household when I was growing up. I loved books, escaping into worlds built by the imagination. I loved to write from an early age. Making up stories was a game, a well-worn tradition. I studied writing in college, entered as a journalism major, took an acting class and was hooked. Writing allowed me into rooms inhabited by various human spirits. Acting allowed me to experience those inhabitants in a different way. I started getting acting jobs and moved to New York doing plays there and regionally as well as some television and film. I continued to write for myself, sometimes sharing the stories and plays with friends who encouraged me to send the work out. I began with readings, then workshops. My first full production would be with Actors Theatre of Louisville. I remember my first conversation with Jon Jory, telling me they wanted to do Watermelon Rinds and Jennine’s Diary, a double bill of one-acts called Various Small Fires. I flew into Louisville, Kentucky, excited, nervous, not knowing what to expect. What I found was a theatre community dedicated to the development of new plays, fully supporting the playwright in process. This being my first full production, I was experimenting with my “developmental process,” making it up as I went along. I sat in on rehearsals of other productions, encouraged by Michael Dixon, my dramaturg, and was assisted by research interns. I was surrounded by an extraordinary creative team and began creating a language of collaboration with my directors, designers and brave actors. The writing process here was as painless as could be, and quite full of wonder and joy. It was a new beginning, opening a door I had dreamed of as a child.