slurp... hum, yuk. slurp, hum... disgusting. i'm almost done. [laughter]. slurp, slurp. i gave up eating noodles. thank you, thank you. >> sometimes notable authors come to main stage and do more than read passages from their work. they sit in a live conversation with a reporter, playwright discusses the relevancy of his work with one of his theatre critics. as part of the yearly 1 city one book event. fields questions from sm scott chauffeur. >> before writing the book you want to louisiana and did a lot of research. what reception did you get there? what obstacles did you find? well -- it depends on which decade you are talking about. i did research, actually starting in from the time i was very small. and we went back every summer even though i was born here in berkeley, as a matter of fact we went back every summer to louisiana and i was always interested and did a lot of -- um -- both formal and informal research. starting in the 50's and the 60's. and i will tell you that when i first startd that research and a lot of the research i did in that time period was i wa

slurp... hum, yuk. slurp, hum... disgusting. i'm almost done. [laughter]. slurp, slurp. i gave up eating noodles. thank you, thank you. >> sometimes notable authors come to main stage and do more than read passages from their work. they sit in a live converti

sipping through a straw like through a camelback and the camera goes like in the straw and like -- [ slurpingw interesting." >> how did you do that? >> well it's very good sound effects. we needed you in the sound effects to do all that. >> jimmy: i do all -- work. but i gotta say, i mean this part where he had to cut his arm off. it's -- people are freaking out. people are passing out in the movie theaters. >> yeah, we found a few -- i mean, i thought the problem would be that people would walk on because it's a very graphic sequence, very intense, but we don't have anybody walking out, although we've had to carry out a few people. that's been more of the problem. >> jimmy: yeah, they just passed out and you dragged them out. >> but the thing about them is, they went, "i've been backstage because you want to know what happens to them and they're like gone and then they wake up and they look at you and go, "oh, hello, i'm sorry. good movie," and they get up and go back in. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: so, they get up and go back into the movie after passing out. >> yeah. >> jimmy: i mean, that's a