Seminar - a play by Theresa Rebeck

This was a great play, full of manipulation, secret resentment, and unspoken feelings. One thing that I liked a lot about it was the concept of interiority vs. exteriority as first explained by Douglas in reference to landscaping. There's this idea that all the characters have a face they present that does not bely their interior lives. Leonard, for instance, has been mortally wounded by the false accusation that he plagiarized from a student, and therefore puts on a contrarian and arrogant face but keeps all of his writing to himself now. Kate, certain that Leonard only dislikes her writing because of her perceived entitlement and vapidity, pretends to be writing as a Cuban transsexual to get Leonard to see past the exteriority. Martin, certain that he'll be unable to maintain his sarcastic and judgmental exterior if he reveals his writing, keeps hundreds of pages hidden away from view.

Another clear idea here is privilege vs. underdog, kind of. We have these two characters, Douglas and Kate, who clearly have advantages. Kate has her super cheap really nice apartment, and Douglas has "connections." Then we have Izzy, who is trying to utilize her sexuality in a way to get ahead, and Martin who feels like an outsider, not only socio-economically, but also because he keeps getting rejected from places that Douglas gets into. And Leonard, well, it's almost as if Leonard is feigning privilege, but really feels trodden upon and diminished as a man. He goes on all these crazy trips, but that seems obviously part of his bravado. The fact that he has each of these students pay him five grand up front also is an interesting detail that arises on multiple occasions as an issue between the students and Leonard, and among the students themselves. 

The conceit, a writing seminar that brings these people together every week to discuss their pages, is a good one -- it's a reason for all of these "friends" to gather in a confined space and talk and judge each other and become attracted to each other. 
It's also good that betrayals are handled very matter-of-factory, which is not to say that they aren't heavy but rather just that they don't weigh the play down. Martin sleeping with Izzy in Kate's apartment, for instance, clearly hurts Kate but doesn't mandate any real page real estate to dwell on it. Izzy sleeping with Leonard is similarly expediently handled, as, ultimately, is Kate sleeping with Leonard. 
Douglas is really the one character whose talent Leonard seems not to respect, but it doesn't matter because Douglas is a man of other means. It's clear that Douglas has the surest path to success, but interestingly in the play that makes him the butt of the joke a bit. Despite the fact, of course, that he is actually not a bad writer. Just a writer who's almost too competent, too clean. He's not in the much with the rest of them. 
Finally, I'd say, that the momentum of these play, driven by these students' quest for validation and confirmation of their talent, is really carried for most of the time by Leonard, and his almost pathological need to criticize and minimalize and hurt. Of course, except when he finds Martin, who he still cruelly flagellates but sees too much of himself in. Leonard's decision to take Martin under his wing is a redemptive moment too, because it's indicative that Leonard will perhaps find some salvation in a protege.