| The Playwright's Guidebook: An Insightful Primer on the Art of Dramatic Writing Contributor(s): Spencer, Stuart (Author) |
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ISBN: 0571199917 ISBN-13: 9780571199914 Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux OUR PRICE: $18.00 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: March 2002 Annotation: An accessible, contemporary guide to the art of dramatic writing During the ten years that Stuart Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective playwriting handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular handbooks have good ideas in them, they all suffer from the same problems: they're poorly organized; are composed mostly of quirky, idiosyncratic advice on how specific playwrights have gone about writing their own work; and are full of abstract theorizing on the nature of art. As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information on how to construct a well-written play or any useful guidelines and exercises. Moreover, few of these books are actually written by working playwrights. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own book. The result, "The Playwright's Guidebook," is a clear, concise, and engaging handbook. Spencer addresses the important principles of structure, includes insightful writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that playwrights actually face. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Language Arts & Disciplines | Writing - General - Performing Arts | Theater - Playwriting |
| Dewey: 808.2 |
| LCCN: 2001040694 |
| Physical Information: 1" H x 5.48" W x 8.27" (0.77 lbs) 392 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: An accessible, contemporary guide to the art of dramatic writing During the ten years that Stuart Spencer has taught playwriting, he has struggled to find an effective playwriting handbook for his courses. Although most of the currently popular handbooks have good ideas in them, they all suffer from the same problems: they're poorly organized; are composed mostly of quirky, idiosyncratic advice on how specific playwrights have gone about writing their own work; and are full of abstract theorizing on the nature of art. As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information on how to construct a well-written play or any useful guidelines and exercises. Moreover, few of these books are actually written by working playwrights. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own book. The result, The Playwright's Guidebook, is a clear, concise, and engaging handbook. Spencer addresses the important principles of structure, includes insightful writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that playwrights actually face. |
Contributor Bio(s): Spencer, Stuart: - Stuart Spencer's play Resident Alien has been produced around the country and been optioned for film. He teaches playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College. |