Mamet’s title came back to me while I was reading Patti Hartigan’s biography of another essential American playwright, August Wilson. Wilson, who died in 2005, spent so much time lingering in diners that “Writing in Restaurants” is a plausible alternative subtitle for Hartigan’s “August Wilson: A Life.”Wilson was a large, bearded man, often in tweeds and a pageboy cap. He’d sit in the back with a cup of coffee and an overflowing ashtray. As his fame grew, he’d find a place in each city where his plays were staged. It was his daily slice of experimental theater.

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Persons: WILSON, Patti Hartigan, David Mamet, Patti Hartigan’s, August Wilson, Wilson, Hartigan’s “, ” Wilson, He’d, “, Arthur Treacher’s Fish, he’d Locations: ”, New York City, Boston, Seattle, Caffe Ladro