The Art and Craft of Playwriting [Paperback]

Jeffery Hatcher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2000

Award-winning playwright Jeffrey Hatcher knows -- and shares with energy and smart advice -- the nuts and bolts of writing successful stage scripts.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Story Press (March 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884910467
• ISBN-13: 978-1884910463
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 91 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dramaturg says: one of the best around!, February 5, 2003

By 

Gwen A Orel (Millburn, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art and Craft of Playwriting (Paperback)

I work as a literary manager in a professional theatre with a strong new play development program-- working with playwrights is my life's work.

There are a lot of playwriting manuals out there, and I think this is one of the very best.

What's so great about it?

1) Hatcher is a well-known, prolific, successful professional playwright. His plays have been produced nationwide, including at my theatre (we're trying to commission him to write a new play for us right now)-- and he really knows what he's talking about. He's established professionally and his experience shows. (Two of my favorites of his: SOCKDOLOGY; SCOTLAND ROAD).

2) The book avoids the usual pitfall of playwriting books-- the methodical fallacy. That is, the fallacy that playwrights work from step a to step b. So that, once you lay out how a play's arc should work, all a playwright needs to do is plot it out, as if it's a budget on a spreadsheet-- without giving help to how to flesh out a character, how to make a scene interesting.

While Hatcher does suggest planning out the plot and writing linearly i (he may be the ONLY professional playwright I know who really does work from an outline; most writers, even the ones who write these how-tos, will confess that they often have a couple of scenes and maybe an ending-- more like a kamikaze mission than a planned road-trip), Hatcher also includes exercises and ideas at the end of every chapter.

These are GREAT generative devices! (Idea-boosters). He has great tips for improving dialogue, keeping a scene active, "raising the stakes"-- he doesn't just theorize, he gives hands-on exercises-- which work.

I taught playwriting at a small liberal arts college for the first time last spring, and I made this book a requirement. Because it covers all the basics of play structure and terminology without dwelling in them too much, so it didn't bore my acting students (who were already familiar with the term) and it didn't confuse my writing students (who knew about structure but were unfamiliar with theatrical specifics like "subtext").

I combined this book with Jeffrey Sweet's books and found that these, in combination with the tips my writer friends threw my way, really covered it all.

This book is a great resource, and I dip into it from time to time when I'm trying to figure out what to say to a playwright whose play isn't gelling but I'm not sure why.

Not to be missed by anyone aspiring to write plays, and a fun read for anyone who just enjoys knowing how playwrights work on their craft. Entertaining prose, full of examples, and an indispensable manual.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful blend of technical and artistic advice, November 26, 2000

By 

Aaron Orear (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art and Craft of Playwriting (Paperback)

Hatcher is, before anything else, a good playwright. He has recently premiered a couple of his works in my area, (WI) and both were unqualified triumphs. I say this simply because a number of the books out there concerning playwriting were written by people I've never heard of and who don't have a single play in production...anywhere.

Hatcher's book contains some great inspiration in the form of his own experiences as well as some very practical technical tips. But where this book excels is in the exercises he suggests and in the questions he asks the reader. Taken to heart they can lead a playwright to new discoveries about his/her own work, and that's the best lesson available.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you're mired down in your own play, script, or novel, March 2, 2004

By 

"mschumley" - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art and Craft of Playwriting (Paperback)

I checked this book out from the library, but now I must buy my own copy to keep. I've been having problems developing second act story complications without completely deconstructing my original set up and concept. The suggested techniques in this book of asking questions --somewhat like a reporter or investigator would in uncovering a life mystery-- to find the story are unique. I actually found myself with pen and paper WANTING to participate in the questions and exercises. No other manual has inspired me this way.