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.Author: Stuart Spencer
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Published: 03/29/2002
Pages: 400
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.77lbs
Size: 8.27h x 5.48w x 1.00d
ISBN13: 9780571199914
ISBN10: 0571199917
BISAC Categories:
- Language Arts & Disciplines | Writing | General
- Performing Arts | Theater | Playwriting
About the Author
Stuart Spencer's most recent play, Resident Alien, has been produced around the country and been optioned for film. He teaches playwriting at Sarah Lawrence College.