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My conversation with Tracy Letts - playwright of August: Osage County , currently on in Toronto, and Superior Donuts , currently on Broadway - was much longer than what's appearing in the paper tomorrow. Thanks to the wonder of the Internet, here are some of the outtakes I thought were too interesting for the cutting-room floor.

Once August went through a couple of cast changes on Broadway, African-American actress Phylicia Rashad took over as Violet Weston. Colour-blind casting is getting more common everywhere, but it's unusual for it to happen in the original run of a play. Whose idea was that?

It was our producer Jeffrey Richards. To tell the truth, my initial reaction was a little knee-jerk. Then I studied on it and I thought: this is not the right time to make a dumb decision. The fact of the matter is that Phylicia Rashad was great in the play, just great. If someone had any kind of preconceived notions that a black actor could not play Violet in that play with the rest of the cast being white, they were dispelled within minutes, if not seconds. I'm actually really proud of that. I think we just came down on the right side of that argument.

Your new play on Broadway, Superior Donuts, has a more diverse cast of characters. One of its main characters is the young African-American Franko Wicks, played by Jon Michael Hill. Hilton Als criticized this character in his review in New Yorker, writing: "He is funky but not rough, jokey but not menacing, intelligent but not challenging: in short, he is an acceptable black man. ... a racial trap, a repository for all our liberal feelings." What do you think about that characterisation?

Fuck Hilton Als. That's what I think. I had not read that. Donuts is one of the first plays for which I never read the reviews. My girlfriend sort of vetted them for me and showed me a couple that knew wouldn't get me too angry. But Fuck Hilton Als - and I would have said that after his review of August: Osage County, which I did read. He's an asshole.

I don't think anyone would have said that about the Russian video store owner in the play. He's got a bit of Yakov Smirnoff in him, but is also a fully rounded character. I wouldn't say he's a repository for all our feelings about Russians.

You know, one of my job descriptions is ensemble member of Steppenwolf Theatre Company. And we have an ensemble of 42 actors and, in my last three plays, I've been writing specifically for that ensemble. One of the things that we have done at Steppenwolf in the last few years is diversify our ensemble to better reflect the community that we live in, as well as the country we live in. It's a move that was a long time coming. I took it on board as part of my responsibility to try to reflect that diversity in my playwrighting as well.

It's one thing to add African-American ensemble members to your company, but I'd like to act with them as well and not segregate our season planning at the theatre: "Well, this over here is going to be the black show, and this over here is going to be the white show." I'm not interested in that, my company's not interested in that, and so that was part of the impetus to write Superior Donuts. Whether I've been successful in that or not, there will be different opinions about that, clearly.

Theatrical segregation's a real concern. I feel like many playwrights are afraid to write about characters from different backgrounds, especially different races, because of fears of criticisms like Als's. Did you find it difficult to write characters of different backgrounds?

Yes, yes, very. But that's part of the challenge, right. That's the gig. You've got to be able to write different voices, try on different hats. One of the qualities we're supposed to have as playwrights is empathy. It only takes you so far, and then you come up against the challenges of reflecting some degree of reality.

Fortunately, because Steppenwolf is an ensemble, because I'm working with African-American ensemble members, I can turn to them and say, "Does this wash? Is any of this striking you the wrong the way?" We can have that conversation. It's not something that's created in a vacuum. We work together.

Poetry's a recurring theme in your work. T.S. Eliot's work frames the action in August: Osage County. And in Superior Donuts, there's that great moment where Arthur, the donut shop proprietor, has to name ten African-American poets. Did you know ten, or did you have to look them up yourself?

I've got to be honest about this, I don't think I could have named ten African-American poets off the top of my head, and it was a source of some embarrassment. Rather than just pull it off of Wikipedia or whatever, I decided, well, if I'm going to do this, I've got to learn something about them and read some of their poems. I can name them now, by God, plus some.

Can you recite any of their poems?

No, but I can't recite any white people's poems either. This business of poetry in my plays - Pablo Neruda plays an important role in The Man from Nebraska, as well. I don't know what that's about. I guess it's about a love of literature. Poetry seems to me the purest form of literature. I haven't examined it too closely.

Are you a big poetry fan? Do you spend nights reading poetry?

Yeah, I do read poetry. I read more fiction than poetry, but I do read poetry. To say "spend nights," though, that make me sound like a lame nerd, spending my nights reading poetry.

Yeah, sorry, that wasn't the best way to phrase the question. I guess it's my own bias against poetry. I just never read it, so when I picture someone reading it, I picture them sitting in an armchair in front of a fireplace.

There are lines in August: Osage County that reflect that. It used to be a bigger deal. Poets - and playwrights, too, for that matter - used to play a larger role in the national character than they do now. I find that odd and sad.

You seem to be playing taking on that role, somewhat. When we see straight plays on Broadway - not that Broadway is the be-all and end-all, of course - but when they get there generally it's because of star casting. But you've now had two plays, one did very well, the other is doing well, and it's your name and Steppenwolf that are carrying these shows.

I'm really proud of that. I'm proud that we've been able to bring our casts to New York and make a go of it. We can't, nor should we try to compete with Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. Movie stars are always going to sell tickets. There's no fighting that, nor do I necessarily want to.

At the same time, it gets a little frustrating as a theatre artist, especially when you start to see people who have never been on stage before up on stage and in the biggest forum of all. There are real good reasons why that should not be happening. That shows a real lack of respect for this craft that me and all my peers have devoted our lives to.