The Playwright's Manifesto

The Playwright's Manifesto

Author: Paul Sirett

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2022-09-08

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1350204315

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Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023 A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write. Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright's most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future. This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright's mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today's world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?


Book Synopsis The Playwright's Manifesto by : Paul Sirett

Download or read book The Playwright's Manifesto written by Paul Sirett and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2022-09-08 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shortlisted for the STR Theatre Book Prize 2023 A manifesto for the future of playwriting, this book challenges you to be a part of that future in the belief that it is fundamentally important to write plays. Plays help us understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Reading this book, you will be challenged to learn your craft, explode what you know, prioritise what is important to you, and write in the way that only you can write. Most books on playwriting explain how to create a believable character in a story driven by plot. This book, however, goes even further in its exploration of the playwright's most valuable tool: theatricality. By learning from the past, and the present, the playwrights of tomorrow can create new, vivid, theatrical drama for the future. This manifesto also examines the process of writing, the art of collaboration, and the impact of writing on a playwright's mental health. It identifies the highs and lows, as well as the trials and tribulations, of life as a playwright in today's world. Theatre is a living artform. It is time for playwrights to acknowledge that fact and to celebrate the unique, primal thrill that a live theatre experience offers us. The future of playwriting is in your hands. Do you accept the challenge?

The Playwright's Manifesto

The Playwright's Manifesto

Author: Paul Sirett

Publisher:

Published:

Total Pages: 208

ISBN-13: 9781350204324

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"Too many playwrights have forgotten how to write with a genuinely theatrical voice, or perhaps they never learned? Since the advent of naturalism in the late 19th century, the focus of playwriting has been on representing a realistic view of human life to the extent that theatrical metaphor and symbol and gesture have got somewhat lost along the way. Today, a playwright is often more concerned with the inner, intra, and outer psychological conflicts of their characters than they are about the vast array of theatrical techniques at their disposal. They are obsessed with real people and real situations, instead of telling their stories in glorious three-dimensional theatricality. This book is a cry for the theatrical. The Playwright's Manifesto investigates and analyses the techniques of past playwrights like Sophocles and Shakespeare and asks what we can learn from them and how we can adapt these ideas in our present-day practice? Teaching through example, it examines the exciting theatrical ideas contained in the work of the new wave of women writers like Lucy Prebble, Alice Birch, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Clare Barron, Sarah Ruhl, and Ella Hickson. These are playwrights who take full advantage of theatre's strengths, writing plays that demand to be produced on the stage rather than in another medium; plays that break rules and try new things; plays that delight in their use of non-naturalistic form, image, and language; plays that paint vivid abstract pictures; plays that are big in imagination; plays that put the poetic before the prosaic; plays that engage our imagination and intelligence as well as our emotions. The time has come for playwrights to think theatrically again. To truly embrace the primal, imaginative thrill of a live theatre experience that does not pretend the audience is not there. This book will be a creative manifesto for the next generation of playwrights."--


Book Synopsis The Playwright's Manifesto by : Paul Sirett

Download or read book The Playwright's Manifesto written by Paul Sirett and published by . This book was released on with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Too many playwrights have forgotten how to write with a genuinely theatrical voice, or perhaps they never learned? Since the advent of naturalism in the late 19th century, the focus of playwriting has been on representing a realistic view of human life to the extent that theatrical metaphor and symbol and gesture have got somewhat lost along the way. Today, a playwright is often more concerned with the inner, intra, and outer psychological conflicts of their characters than they are about the vast array of theatrical techniques at their disposal. They are obsessed with real people and real situations, instead of telling their stories in glorious three-dimensional theatricality. This book is a cry for the theatrical. The Playwright's Manifesto investigates and analyses the techniques of past playwrights like Sophocles and Shakespeare and asks what we can learn from them and how we can adapt these ideas in our present-day practice? Teaching through example, it examines the exciting theatrical ideas contained in the work of the new wave of women writers like Lucy Prebble, Alice Birch, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Clare Barron, Sarah Ruhl, and Ella Hickson. These are playwrights who take full advantage of theatre's strengths, writing plays that demand to be produced on the stage rather than in another medium; plays that break rules and try new things; plays that delight in their use of non-naturalistic form, image, and language; plays that paint vivid abstract pictures; plays that are big in imagination; plays that put the poetic before the prosaic; plays that engage our imagination and intelligence as well as our emotions. The time has come for playwrights to think theatrically again. To truly embrace the primal, imaginative thrill of a live theatre experience that does not pretend the audience is not there. This book will be a creative manifesto for the next generation of playwrights."--

Manifesto Volume 5

Manifesto Volume 5

Author: Lauren Yee

Publisher:

Published: 2017-12-20

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 9780692072028

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To create a MANIFESTO SERIES volume, Rain City Projects commissions a nationally recognized playwright to write a mission for or vision of what theater could be. They then edit a compilation of plays, culled from the ranks of works with a link to the Pacific Northwest that best illustrate their personal manifesto for the theater. WELCOME TO THE THEATER OF COST. I am not referring to any kind of monetary exchange. I am talking about the price you extract from your audience, your witnesses, your co-conspirators, the eternal exchange of time and attention for an experience that should leave them irrevocably changed. -- So begins Lauren Yee's manifesto for volume 5. This anthology includes the plays Terra Incognita by Benjamin Benne, Nadeshiko by Keiko Green, Roz and Ray by Karen Hartman, Bo-Nita by Elizabeth Heffron, Sound by Don X. Nguyen, and Do It For Umma by Seayoung Yim. RAIN CITY PROJECTS is dedicated to supporting, promoting and developing professional playwrights and their work in the Pacific Northwest. Our goals include raising the profile of the playwright within the working theater community and furthering an understanding of the playwright's role to the larger community.


Book Synopsis Manifesto Volume 5 by : Lauren Yee

Download or read book Manifesto Volume 5 written by Lauren Yee and published by . This book was released on 2017-12-20 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To create a MANIFESTO SERIES volume, Rain City Projects commissions a nationally recognized playwright to write a mission for or vision of what theater could be. They then edit a compilation of plays, culled from the ranks of works with a link to the Pacific Northwest that best illustrate their personal manifesto for the theater. WELCOME TO THE THEATER OF COST. I am not referring to any kind of monetary exchange. I am talking about the price you extract from your audience, your witnesses, your co-conspirators, the eternal exchange of time and attention for an experience that should leave them irrevocably changed. -- So begins Lauren Yee's manifesto for volume 5. This anthology includes the plays Terra Incognita by Benjamin Benne, Nadeshiko by Keiko Green, Roz and Ray by Karen Hartman, Bo-Nita by Elizabeth Heffron, Sound by Don X. Nguyen, and Do It For Umma by Seayoung Yim. RAIN CITY PROJECTS is dedicated to supporting, promoting and developing professional playwrights and their work in the Pacific Northwest. Our goals include raising the profile of the playwright within the working theater community and furthering an understanding of the playwright's role to the larger community.

The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy

The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy

Author: Edwin Wong

Publisher: FriesenPress

Published: 2019-01-28

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1525537555

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WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, BIRNAM WOOD COMES TO DUNSINANE HILL The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy presents a profoundly original theory of drama that speaks to modern audiences living in an increasingly volatile world driven by artificial intelligence, gene editing, globalization, and mutual assured destruction ideologies. Tragedy, according to risk theatre, puts us face to face with the unexpected implications of our actions by simulating the profound impact of highly improbable events. In this book, classicist Edwin Wong shows how tragedy imitates reality: heroes, by taking inordinate risks, trigger devastating low-probability, high-consequence outcomes. Such a theatre forces audiences to ask themselves a most timely question---what happens when the perfect bet goes wrong? Not only does Wong reinterpret classic tragedies from Aeschylus to O’Neill through the risk theatre lens, he also invites dramatists to create tomorrow’s theatre. As the world becomes increasingly unpredictable, the most compelling dramas will be high-stakes tragedies that dramatize the unintended consequences of today's risk takers who are taking us past the point of no return.


Book Synopsis The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy by : Edwin Wong

Download or read book The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy written by Edwin Wong and published by FriesenPress. This book was released on 2019-01-28 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT, BIRNAM WOOD COMES TO DUNSINANE HILL The Risk Theatre Model of Tragedy presents a profoundly original theory of drama that speaks to modern audiences living in an increasingly volatile world driven by artificial intelligence, gene editing, globalization, and mutual assured destruction ideologies. Tragedy, according to risk theatre, puts us face to face with the unexpected implications of our actions by simulating the profound impact of highly improbable events. In this book, classicist Edwin Wong shows how tragedy imitates reality: heroes, by taking inordinate risks, trigger devastating low-probability, high-consequence outcomes. Such a theatre forces audiences to ask themselves a most timely question---what happens when the perfect bet goes wrong? Not only does Wong reinterpret classic tragedies from Aeschylus to O’Neill through the risk theatre lens, he also invites dramatists to create tomorrow’s theatre. As the world becomes increasingly unpredictable, the most compelling dramas will be high-stakes tragedies that dramatize the unintended consequences of today's risk takers who are taking us past the point of no return.

On the Subject of Drama

On the Subject of Drama

Author: David Hornbrook

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2002-01-04

Total Pages: 220

ISBN-13: 1134702345

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Although much has been written on how the drama elements of the English curriculum might be taught in schools, there is less guidance available for teachers who regard drama not as an adjunct of English but as an arts subject in its own right. In this volume, David Hornbrook and a team of experienced drama specialists show how the subject of drama may be defined and taught. Drawing on literature, visual art, music and dance as well as the rich and varied traditions of drama itself, they map out an eclectic subject curriculum for students of all ages. Opening up the field in new and exciting ways, the book embraces the widest possible range of dramatic knowledge and skills, from the Natyashastra of ancient India to contemporary classroom improvisation. The book is divided into three sections: The teaching and learning of drama: ideas about interculturalism, creativity and craft - key concepts informing the drama curriculum - are interrogated and re-theorised for the classroom. Making and performing drama in school: the fundamental processes of reading and writing plays for performance are explored, along with the potential of dance to enhance and extend students' experience of dramatic performance. Watching and understanding drama: ensuring the curriculum is appropriately balanced between the production and reception of drama, this last section emphasises the role of students as audience - for both live and electronic performances - and the development of a dramatic vocabulary.


Book Synopsis On the Subject of Drama by : David Hornbrook

Download or read book On the Subject of Drama written by David Hornbrook and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2002-01-04 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although much has been written on how the drama elements of the English curriculum might be taught in schools, there is less guidance available for teachers who regard drama not as an adjunct of English but as an arts subject in its own right. In this volume, David Hornbrook and a team of experienced drama specialists show how the subject of drama may be defined and taught. Drawing on literature, visual art, music and dance as well as the rich and varied traditions of drama itself, they map out an eclectic subject curriculum for students of all ages. Opening up the field in new and exciting ways, the book embraces the widest possible range of dramatic knowledge and skills, from the Natyashastra of ancient India to contemporary classroom improvisation. The book is divided into three sections: The teaching and learning of drama: ideas about interculturalism, creativity and craft - key concepts informing the drama curriculum - are interrogated and re-theorised for the classroom. Making and performing drama in school: the fundamental processes of reading and writing plays for performance are explored, along with the potential of dance to enhance and extend students' experience of dramatic performance. Watching and understanding drama: ensuring the curriculum is appropriately balanced between the production and reception of drama, this last section emphasises the role of students as audience - for both live and electronic performances - and the development of a dramatic vocabulary.

The Shy Manifesto

The Shy Manifesto

Author: Michael Ross

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2019-04-01

Total Pages: 47

ISBN-13: 1350114405

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Last night I tried not to be shy, just as an experiment for one night - and with catastrophic results. 17 year old Callum is proud to be shy and he thinks you should be too, because what this noisy, crazy world needs right now is a bit more self-restraint. The Shy Manifesto is a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy drama about a shy boy who is fed up of constantly being told to come out of his shell. Tonight he is to address an audience of radical shy comrades and incite the meek to finally rise up and inherit the earth. But memories of the previous night's drunken escapades at a classmate's end-of-term party keep intruding, and threaten to upend the fragile identity he has created for himself. Callum delivers his manifesto, exploring adolescence, isolation, self-loathing and sexuality. His irreverent lightness of touch, and multi- rolling as the other characters in his story endear him to the audience, encouraging us that we, too, can be proud to be shy. The Shy Manifesto is a solo piece that takes the experience of being shy as its central subject- something which has rarely been explored in drama, and yet which touches on many audience members lives.


Book Synopsis The Shy Manifesto by : Michael Ross

Download or read book The Shy Manifesto written by Michael Ross and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-04-01 with total page 47 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Last night I tried not to be shy, just as an experiment for one night - and with catastrophic results. 17 year old Callum is proud to be shy and he thinks you should be too, because what this noisy, crazy world needs right now is a bit more self-restraint. The Shy Manifesto is a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy drama about a shy boy who is fed up of constantly being told to come out of his shell. Tonight he is to address an audience of radical shy comrades and incite the meek to finally rise up and inherit the earth. But memories of the previous night's drunken escapades at a classmate's end-of-term party keep intruding, and threaten to upend the fragile identity he has created for himself. Callum delivers his manifesto, exploring adolescence, isolation, self-loathing and sexuality. His irreverent lightness of touch, and multi- rolling as the other characters in his story endear him to the audience, encouraging us that we, too, can be proud to be shy. The Shy Manifesto is a solo piece that takes the experience of being shy as its central subject- something which has rarely been explored in drama, and yet which touches on many audience members lives.

Theatre and Europe, 1957-95

Theatre and Europe, 1957-95

Author: Christopher McCullough

Publisher: Intellect Books

Published: 1996

Total Pages: 102

ISBN-13:

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Annotation An overview of the main strands of European thought (with regard to the development of European consciousness) manifest through significant moments of theatre practice. This book goes further than other books by relating theatre history to the development of the European Community as a whole. The author lays emphasis on the analytic sense of culture, wishing to illuminate a particular moment when theatre may be seen as an expression of, or a moment of subversion in, the accepted cultural status quo.


Book Synopsis Theatre and Europe, 1957-95 by : Christopher McCullough

Download or read book Theatre and Europe, 1957-95 written by Christopher McCullough and published by Intellect Books. This book was released on 1996 with total page 102 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annotation An overview of the main strands of European thought (with regard to the development of European consciousness) manifest through significant moments of theatre practice. This book goes further than other books by relating theatre history to the development of the European Community as a whole. The author lays emphasis on the analytic sense of culture, wishing to illuminate a particular moment when theatre may be seen as an expression of, or a moment of subversion in, the accepted cultural status quo.

British Avant-Garde Theatre

British Avant-Garde Theatre

Author: C. Warden

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-05-09

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1137020695

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This book explores an under-researched body of work from the early decades of the twentieth century, connecting plays, performances and practitioners together in dynamic dialogues. Moving across national, generational and social borders, the book reads experiments in Britain during this period alongside theatrical innovations overseas.


Book Synopsis British Avant-Garde Theatre by : C. Warden

Download or read book British Avant-Garde Theatre written by C. Warden and published by Springer. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores an under-researched body of work from the early decades of the twentieth century, connecting plays, performances and practitioners together in dynamic dialogues. Moving across national, generational and social borders, the book reads experiments in Britain during this period alongside theatrical innovations overseas.

Redefining British Politics

Redefining British Politics

Author: L. Black

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2010-02-24

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 0230250475

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A history of 1950s and 1960s British political culture, Redefining British Politics interrogates ideas, movements and identities bordering social and political change: consumer organisations; campaigns about TV, morality and culture; Young Conservatism; and how party politics used media like TV and was represented in popular culture.


Book Synopsis Redefining British Politics by : L. Black

Download or read book Redefining British Politics written by L. Black and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-02-24 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A history of 1950s and 1960s British political culture, Redefining British Politics interrogates ideas, movements and identities bordering social and political change: consumer organisations; campaigns about TV, morality and culture; Young Conservatism; and how party politics used media like TV and was represented in popular culture.

Contemporary European Playwrights

Contemporary European Playwrights

Author: Maria M. Delgado

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-07-22

Total Pages: 376

ISBN-13: 1351620533

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Contemporary European Playwrights presents and discusses a range of key writers that have radically reshaped European theatre by finding new ways to express the changing nature of the continent’s society and culture, and whose work is still in dialogue with Europe today. Traversing borders and languages, this volume offers a fresh approach to analyzing plays in production by some of the most widely-performed European playwrights, assessing how their work has revealed new meanings and theatrical possibilities as they move across the continent, building an unprecedented picture of the contemporary European repertoire. With chapters by leading scholars and contributions by the writers themselves, the chapters bring playwrights together to examine their work as part of a network and genealogy of writing, examining how these plays embody and interrogate the nature of contemporary Europe. Written for students and scholars of European theatre and playwriting, this book will leave the reader with an understanding of the shifting relationships between the subsidized and commercial, the alternative and the mainstream stage, and political stakes of playmaking in European theatre since 1989.


Book Synopsis Contemporary European Playwrights by : Maria M. Delgado

Download or read book Contemporary European Playwrights written by Maria M. Delgado and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-07-22 with total page 376 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary European Playwrights presents and discusses a range of key writers that have radically reshaped European theatre by finding new ways to express the changing nature of the continent’s society and culture, and whose work is still in dialogue with Europe today. Traversing borders and languages, this volume offers a fresh approach to analyzing plays in production by some of the most widely-performed European playwrights, assessing how their work has revealed new meanings and theatrical possibilities as they move across the continent, building an unprecedented picture of the contemporary European repertoire. With chapters by leading scholars and contributions by the writers themselves, the chapters bring playwrights together to examine their work as part of a network and genealogy of writing, examining how these plays embody and interrogate the nature of contemporary Europe. Written for students and scholars of European theatre and playwriting, this book will leave the reader with an understanding of the shifting relationships between the subsidized and commercial, the alternative and the mainstream stage, and political stakes of playmaking in European theatre since 1989.