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Playwriting in Process |
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Playwriting in Process Thinking and Working Theatrically, 2nd Edition
2010 • 978-1-58510-340-9 • paper • 233 pages • 6 x 9 • $22.95 Written to encourage new and experienced playwrights to build techniques for a greater range of creative expression in writing for the stage, the book uses exercises or etudes to guide playwrights towards thinking and working theatrically. The etudes help playwrights start or revise their work by providing exercises in alternate thinking about their subject and their processes. The book is useful for both student and professional playwrights at all levels who have some fundamental knowledge of dramatic writing. | About the Author | Table of Contents | Introduction | Reviews |
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Description New to the second edition: new etudes, a general updating such as the use of the internet, a new chapter for teachers and playwriting group leaders on using this book in class, end-of-chapter “Call Out” exercises.
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Michael Wright is the Director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Creative Writing at The University of Tulsa, where he teaches Screenwriting and Playwriting. He is the founder and moderator of the Fictional Characters writers collective, the U.S. Representative to World Interplay in Australia, a resource artist for the Necessary Stage in Singapore, and the WordBRIDGE Playwrights Lab. His books include Playwriting at Work and Play: Developmental Programs and Their Processes, Playwriting Master Class, Playwriting in Process, and the Monologues for Men by Men series, co-edited with Gary Garrison. His plays, poems, and fiction have appeared in The Elvis Monologues, Scenes and Monologues for Mature Actors, Monologues from the Road, Rio Grande Review, Voces Fronterizas, 5th Story Review, the Moondance Film Festival, SixSentences.com, and PrickoftheSpindle.com. His plays and radio plays have been produced by Dorset Theatre Festival, Berkshire Theatre Festival, Actors Theatre of Louisville, New Playwrights Theatre of Washington, The Baltimore Playwrights’ Festival, The Vineyard Theatre, Living Arts of Tulsa, the National Audio Theatre Festival, and Shoestring Radio Theatre.
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Table
of Contents
Preface to the Second Edition Introduction Chapter 1: Thinking Theatrically Chapter 2: Working Theatrically Chapter 3: The Etudes: What They
Are And How To Use Them Chapter 4: Technique Etudes Chapter 5: Character Etudes Chapter 6: Plot Etudes Chapter 7: Etudes for Structure Chapter 8: Collaboration Etudes Chapter 9: Unblocking Etudes Appendix: A Walk Through
Etude-Land Index of Etudes About the Author
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The urge that led to this book came from the frustrations many of my colleagues around the country share with playwriting books that aren’t generally very useful in the classroom. I decided I wanted a broad compendium of exercises that could be assigned to students with varying needs and levels, something students would carry with them beyond the classroom in much the same way that directing students hang on to Viola Spolin’s monumentally important Improvisation for the Theatre. I wanted something with more of a workshop sensibility, so that students would have a foundation in process. The intent of my book is to reach beyond the needs of the student playwright, however. The exercises can be done on a rudimentary or sophisticated level and can be put together in a virtually infinite number of combinations to explore craft and ideas in any direction a playwright wishes. Playwriting in Process is intended to act as a resource, a craft reminder and reinforcer, a stimulus, a self-teaching mechanism, and a reference work. As a result, this book does not follow any kind of formulaic approach to the making of a play. It’s my belief that formulas impose an inhibitive sense of style and limited theatrical thinking on a writer. My suggestion to all who express a sincere interest in pursuing the craft has always been to "read a million plays, and see twice that many." This suggestion may sound a bit flip, but there is no longer any meaningful single definition of a play that applies across the spectrum of what’s being created around the world, beyond saying that a play is a (largely) live event that takes place in a space that all involved have agreed is a "stage." In the first two chapters, the basic concept or perspective of what makes a play a play is examined through the terms "thinking theatrically" and "working theatrically." This perspective underlies all the exercises that follow in the book.
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"Michael Wright has a passion for theater—not theatrical trends or chic stepchildren of theater—but theater, real theater in all its inherent size and mythic power. He wants those he mentors to inhabit the stage: put their bodies and minds there, and think theatrically. In doing this, he offers concrete advice and takes his readers on his own ever-illuminating journey into theater. In every chapter, Michael Wright gives his readers invaluable ‘assignments.’ Playwriting in Process is not a facile how-to book; rather, it is a book which prompts the reader’s living engagement. I mentored playwrights for over 30 years and never found a text which satisfied me. Were I still in the classroom, Playwriting in Process is the text I would use." —David Kranes, Founding Artistic Director
"Here is a book that acknowledges that the most difficult aspect of writing in a play is not the lack of a clear formula, but rather the lack of a process that offers structure without impeding inspiration. Michael Wright’s self-proclaimed ‘anti-how-to’ book is a rare and wonderful gem. His etudes offer a practical road map to the intangible heart and soul of the creative impulse; reminding us that writerly muscles must regularly bend, expand and breathe. With this new edition, Mr. Wright truly takes us to the next level, including ‘call-outs’ that invite the writer to actively engage the world-at-large as a part of his/her writing process. This is far more than a book of exercises. It is an invitation to focus on the process of writing, rather than the product." —Jeni
Mahoney, Artistic Director,
"Theatre gives voice to stories that have had no voice. Playwriting in Process helps you to tell those stories that need telling, without forcing them into the molds of the past. Michael Wright empowers his readers and students to discover more than what worked for some famous playwright once upon a time, but what works for you—now." —Brian Nelson, screenwriter, HARD CANDY
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