Customer Reviews

The Art and Craft of Playwriting

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Jeffrey Hatcher's book is not perfect, but that's not why I gave it five stars. Simply put, it's a good book to tell you the stuff you'll then learn on your own by trial and error.

No book can tell you how to write a play, this one included. Hatcher doesn't lead you on a step by step method, though he is a bit on the side of structure. For that reason alone, it's vastly superior to most other such works on the market. Add to this the relative lack of bias against particular works, authors, and style that Hatcher displays, and you've got a good beginning primer on the subject.

Hatcher's methods of developing story and characters are loose, but fairly effective, and his analysis of Aristotle's Poetics is far better than Louis Catron's or Lajos Egri's. But what really sets this one above are its lack of formula (yes, "formulaic" is a bad thing) and the fact that it doesn't tell you to write as polemic.

You'll learn the real stuff on your own, but Hatcher is a solid place to start.

I own and have read several books on playwrighting. "The Art and Craft of Playwrighting" is without a doubt the best book I have come across on the topic. Hatcher's use of modern and classic pieces of drama to illustrate all of his points strengthens everything he has to say. I constantly go back and re-read sections of this book when doing revisions of my plays. Whenever I have a question or a problem about my own writing, I go to this book for guidance--as I said, it's my playwrighting Bible!

Truly a bible for aspiring playwrights. If you need to read more playwriting books after this, you are definately procrastinating. Read it and go out and do it. Re-read your favourite bits when re-drafting. His interviews are refreshing and extremely insightful.

A MUST !

Keep re-reading it over and over again. Don't ever let it leave your bedside table. Written with razor sharp simplicity, organised ingeniously and written with a scholarly expertise.

Excellent book for the playwriter, old or new. He brings a real sense of himself and what worked for him (The Author.) But leaves you room to do it your way. I have bought over ten books lately on playwriting this is by far the best.

I cannot express how helpful I found this book to be. I have never attempted a play before but was merely thinking about the elements of playwriting on my own and felt like i needed some guidance. This book really addressed many of the unique aspects of playwriting I had been thinking about as well as mentioning others which I hadn't thought of.

The technical examples were helpful as were the suggested writing exercises. I enjoyed the interviews at the end to get new perspectives and help identify the breakable and unbreakable rules of playwriting.

Additionally, the book was clearly and concisely written and as such, a pleasure to read.

I highly recommend this book as a way to help structure your thoughts about playwriting.

Julia

Even as a person who has experience with playwriting, I found the book useful, especially during the revision process.
The author is clear, and the book is well organized, so that if you don't need the introductory chapter, you can go immediately to what you need.