Playwriting Master Class (Second Edition)

Playwrighting Master Class is a book for the active playwright. It explores the process of playwrighting, the evolution of the play as the playwright engages with it, and the choices the playwright makes in creating the play. Through the use of a number of case studies of playwrights engaged in writing and rewriting plays, Wright focuses on different individual approaches to their work, fostering their own unique visions and voices as a means of helping the working playwright find her or his own voice. 

SKU
27323g

The Personality of Process and the Art of Rewriting

Michael Wright

2011 - 339 pp. - Imprint: Focus

Grouped product items
Format ISBN Price Qty
Paper 978-1-58510-342-3
$29.95
Instructor Examination (Review) Copy 978-1-58510-342-3
$4.00

Playwrighting Master Class is a book for the active playwright. It explores the process of playwrighting, the evolution of the play as the playwright engages with it, and the choices the playwright makes in creating the play. Through the use of a number of case studies of playwrights engaged in writing and rewriting plays, Wright focuses on different individual approaches to their work, fostering their own unique visions and voices as a means of helping the working playwright find her or his own voice.

Reviews:

"[Playwrighting Master Class] is an invaluable tool for anyone who seeks to understand the secret that is playwriting."
   —Lee Blessing

"A fascinating and movingly honest look into several individual processes of playwriting, from the first kernel of dream state inspiration to the painstaking details of rewriting a final draft. More of an inside look into coaching sessions rather than our standard idea of a more rigid class, the book does indeed demystify the art of playwriting with revelations of the very individual progress down a creative road it is—albeit with helpful sign posts along the way."
   —Morgan Jenness Creative Consultant, Abrams Artists Agency

"This book is like an archeological dig: it reveals much of what usually remains buried about the most personal aspects of the act of writing. The eight playwrights in this book open up their processes to the reader’s scrutiny and in doing so, they provide a guide of sorts to the reader's own trajectory. A terrific addition to the literature on writing!"
   —Moisés Kaufman, Writer—Director, Tectonic Theater Project

"This is a one-of-a-kind wonder of a book on the writer's complex, emotional process of writing a play. Deep inside you'll discover not only the unique path each writer takes to dramatically express their theatrical ideas, but you're privy to an assessment of that process by one our country's most important scholars in the theatre—Michael Wright."
   —Gary Garrison

 

About the Author:


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.