Crossed a playwright with a paper figure (9)
I believe the answer is:
traversed
'crossed' is the definition.
('traverse' can be a synonym of 'cross')
'a playwright with a paper figure' is the wordplay.
'a playwright' becomes 'travers' (I've seen this before).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'a paper figure' becomes 'ed' (short for newspaper editor).
'travers'+'ed'='TRAVERSED'
(Other definitions for traversed that I've seen before include "passed over" , "Travelled across zigzag course" , "Came across" , "Crossed" , "Went over" .)