Customer Reviews

Dramatists Sourcebook 24th Edition

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

 

 

The Dramatist's Sourcebook is the most trusted guide and has been for working writers seeking publication, production, and theatre companies.

As a dramatic writing student, all of my teachers, established writers, keep this book in their personal collection. E-mail addresses are accurate, mailing addresses never fail, and competitions are categorized in many ways.

Wanna know a theatre specified for Asian/Children's/Experimental theatre? They have it organized alphabetically, indexed in the back of the book, and a full entry describing every theatre's mission and preferences for scripts.

Plus Tony Kushner's introduction gives solid professional advice on how to read/use this guide.

this is an essential resource for any playwright as it lists all the theaters and orgs that are interested in new work. it has complete information which allows the writer to research the theater by going to the web site to investigate the type of plays they perform. i dont know how writers would know where to submit plays if this book didnt exist.
my only complaint is that this book took so long in getting published this year. i buy a new edition every year and the calendar for play submissions runs from sept thru aug. every month i would check to see if this book had been released and was unable to purchase it until january! which means i had missed deadlines for four months of contests -- one third of the book no longer valid. this book should be reduced 8% for every month the information becomes out dated. nevertheless, it is still a great resource as it has other information regarding grants, professional orgs -- and a writer should research potential theaters year-round, not only when they are conducting contests.

As a brand new playwright, I found this book extremely helpful. It contains listings for hundreds of theaters, contests, grants, and arts organizations, with a brief description of each. The handy index organizes the entries by specialty (musicals, adaptations, etc.), which only adds to the ease of using this book.

In addition to the listings, there is a nice introduction which gives tips about submitting your script. I highly recommend reading that intro. before sending anything in the mail.

As a first time user, I found this book to be a helpful resource, but lacking in a few aspects. It would be nice for them to write a little bit about literary agents. I also found some of the descriptions to be too vague or contradictory. However, I still recommend this book to anyone who doesn't want their scripts to be closet drama.

This book is a total waste of time and money. You can do better researching markets on the internet. Spend your time and money more wisely than this book.

This has nothing to do with the Sourcebook itself, which is very thorough and useful for playwrights at any point in their career: Make sure you purchase the latest edition.

Why I bought the 24th edition when the 25th edition was already published is a question I will ponder for the rest of my days.