The Collaborative Playwright: Practical Advice for Getting Your Play Written

by Michele Volansky, Michele Volansky

The interaction between the ideas of the playwright and the know-how of the dramaturg is vital to the success of any production. But not every writer is accustomed to thinking like a dramaturg. The Collaborative Playwright changes that by offering a lively dialogue between a highly successful playwright, Bruce Graham, and an equally accomplished dramaturg, Michele Volansky, supported by hands-on exercises to get you thinking and writing in new ways. The Collaborative Playwright gives you professional advice on how to get started with a play, how to structure it to be performed, and how to work with a dramaturg to turn it into a staged production. Graham and Volanskys fun, smart conversation offers step-by-step advice on each of the components of the craftexposition, rhythms, characterization, structure, and story generationall illustrated with clear examples from Grahams own plays. But unlike other books that advise playwrights, The Collaborative Playwright is written from two points of the playwrights and the dramaturgs. Its both friendly and packed with indispensable nuggets of information, including interviews with more than thirty current theatre artists whose collective advice articulates some of the more practical aspects of working in the theatreknowledge that playwrights need as they write. Want to write plays that work as well on stage as they do in your head? Read The Collaborative Playwright , listen in as two theatre veterans discuss the crucial characteristics of good writing, and find out why, if youre writing for the theatre, it pays to listen to your dramaturg.

184 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

Reviews

[David]

A great source for anyone planning on working in the field of writing or publishing material.

[Lillian Elliott]

Good introduction to play-writing - advice on structure, characters and generating ideas. The interviews at the end were particularly helpful in showing different perspectives on writing and directing plays and had lots of good career and writing advice. Also some interesting writing exercises. Good practical advice for approaching writing for theater.

[Heather]

I use sections of this book for teaching. Volansky rocks.