How Not to Write a Play

by Walter Kerr

A book that teaches the craft of playwrighting by pointing out mistakes.

Genres: Theatre

85 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1998

About the author

Walter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was a writer, lyricist, and director of several Broadway musicals.

He became a theater critic for the New York Herald Tribune in 1951, then began writing theater reviews for the New York Times in 1966. He wrote for the New York Times for seventeen years. Kerr won a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1978.

In 1990, the old Ritz theater on West 48th Street was renamed the Walter Kerr Theatre in his honor.

Kerr's books include:
• How Not to Write a Play (1955)
• Criticism and Censorship (1957)
• Pieces at Eight (1958)
• The Decline of Pleasure (1962)
• The Theatre in Spite of Itself (1963)
• Tragedy and Comedy (1967)
• Thirty Plays Hath November (1969)
• God on the Gymnasium Floor (1971)
• The Silent Clowns (1975)

His wife, Jean Kerr, was also a writer. Together, they wrote the musical Goldilocks (1958), which won two Tony Awards. They also collaborated on Touch and Go (1949) and King of Hearts (1954). It must be said that Kerr did not have much of an ear for music, as many of the shows he panned over his long career included the musically ambitious shows of Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein's comic opera Candide and musically ambitious West Side Story, and Frank Loesser's "musical with a lot of music" [sic. opera], The Most Happy Fella.

Excerpted from Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Walter Kerr had forgotten more about theater than most people will ever know when this book was published in 1956. He wrote this book in hopes of helping a lacksluster theater save itself from complete stagnation. I think since then, those who make theater have more often than not heeded his advice. Consequently, some of his observations while salient are also dated. His common sense approach to playmaking, however, still rings true. I agree with much that he says. He is so well-versed in his subject and well-spoken when he writes about it that sometimes he seems to be agruing both sides of his points equally well which leaves the reader in the dust. It got a bit dry in places and the section of verse/prose is just too long. But on a whole the book is uniquely inspirational, educational and entertaining.

[Guilherme Semionato · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dazzling. One of the most insightful, piercing books about artistic creation I have ever read. I'd say the most, but I barely read books regarding the subject. Written in 1955, astoundingly fresh 60 years later.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This a challenging read if you don't know theatre history. Still, for a book written in 1955, Kerr discusses a lot of issues that the current theatre still faces. Many interesting challenges posed to young playwrights.

[C.M. Subasic · Rating 5 out of 5]

One would think a book by a theater critic would be prescriptive. That he'd have the steps to write a play written out like steps A-B-C. But no! In this 1955 gem of a book (complete with picture of the critic on the back in front of a typewriter and smoking a cigarette), he reveres the organic aspects of the artistic process, eschewing formula, theses, well-made play and all kinds of George Bernard Shaw nonsense. He's not fond of Chekhov and Ibsen, but no matter.

He packs in some thought-provoking ideas and concepts. My fave of his: The critic dissects and the artist unifies.

He believes that people are either born critics who tear things to pieces or with artistic minds that look at the world to see how things can be brought together. I disagree with him slightly on this, as I believe each of us has a tendency to one or the other. But whereas he believes you are either one or the other, I think each individual's point of view shifts and can be shifted. In fact, our entire world is in critic mode and we need to see how we can start building, making, unifying more.

A great book for writers of all kinds, but also artists of any kind, be they musical or visual, written or spoken word, etc.