Mamet’s foul-mouthed masterclass

Long before he achieved success as a playwright and film director, David Mamet (pictured) earned a crust lecturing on theatre studies at New York University. Now his time there, in the late 1970s, is about to be laid bare in a forthcoming memoir written by one of his former pupils, Nancy Balbirer, who likens his expletive-strewn teaching style to a "schoolyard bully in need of his daily Ritalin".

In the book, Take Your Shirt Off and Cry, which will be published by Bloomsbury in the US in April, Balbirer recalls how the acerbic author of Glengarry Glen Ross and Speed-the-Plow did not demur from the use of profanities to get the best from his class. She recalls one session going like this: "'Get the fuck off my stage! Now,' he'd bellow . . . 'And,' he'd continue, his short, burly body bouncing around like a schoolyard bully in need of his daily Ritalin, 'Don't fucking come back until we can hear you. How dare you? You're whispering. On the stage. It's fucking passive-aggressive. You know, only people who are full of shit whisper.'"

When one student asked Mamet who his favourite actresses were, he exploded: "Women who act are not actresses. They're actors. Why do they need to fucking qualify what their genitalia are? Folks, seriously, I need to disabuse you of the notion that 'actress' is anything other than a euphemism for 'floozy' . . . Do women fucking writers call themselves 'writressess?' No!"

However, Balbirer, who before coming a playwright herself appeared on Seinfeld, admits Mamet gave her some useful advice – and even inspired the title for her book. She said he told her: "There's nothing worse than being a woman in showbusiness . . . you'll be asked to do only two things in every fucking role you ever play: take your shirt off and cry."