Playwriting In Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically [Paperback]

Michael Wright (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 4, 1997 | ISBN-10: 0435070347 | ISBN-13: 978-0435070342

Playwriting-in-Process was created to provide a resource, a craft-reminder/reinforcer, a stimulus, a self teaching mechanism, and a reference work. The urge which led to its creation came from feelings shared by many dramatic arts educators around the country, that playwriting textbooks in general aren't very useful--or used, for that matter--in the classroom.

Much like athletes and musicians, playwrights must exercise their skills and practice their craft. But how does this translate to the page? Can we exercise the way we think and write? Playwriting-in Process is a hands-on compendium of games and exercises designed to help do just that: stimulate creativity, provide reminders of basic craft skills, and build strong playwrights.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Michael Wright has a passion for theater - not theatrical trends or chic stepchildren of theater - but theater, real theater in all its inherent size and mythic power. He wants those he mentors to inhabit the stage: put their bodies and minds there, and think theatrically. In doing this, he offers concrete advice and takes his readers on his own ever-illuminating journey into theater. In every chapter, Michael Wright gives his readers invaluable ‘assignments.’ Playwriting in Process is not a facile how-to book; rather, it is a book which prompts the reader’s living engagement. I mentored playwrights for over 30 years and never found a text which satisfied me. Were I still in the classroom, Playwriting in Process is the text I would use.

- David Kranes, Founding Artistic Director of Sundance Playwrights’ Lab

Here is a book that acknowledges that the most difficult aspect of writing in a play is not the lack of a clear formula, but rather the lack of a process that offers structure without impeding inspiration. Michael Wright’s self-proclaimed ‘anti-how-to’ book is a rare and wonderful gem. His etudes offer a practical road map to the intangible heart and soul of the creative impulse; reminding us that writerly muscles must regularly bend, expand and breathe. With this new edition, Mr. Wright truly takes us to the next level, including ‘call-outs’ that invite the writer to actively engage the world-at-large as a part of his/her writing process. This is far more than a book of exercises. It is an invitation to focus on the process of writing, rather than the product.

- Jeni Mahoney, Artistic Director, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference (id Theater)

and Head of Playwriting, Playwrights Horizons Theater School/NYU Tisch School of the Arts

Theatre gives voice to stories that have had no voice. Playwriting in Process helps you to tell those stories that need telling, without forcing them into the molds of the past. Michael Wright empowers his readers and students to discover more than what worked for some famous playwright once upon a time, but what works for you - now.

- Brian Nelson, screenwriter, HARD CANDY

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Written to encourage new and experienced playwrights to build techniques for a greater range of creative expression in writing for the stage, the book uses exercises or etudes to guide playwrights towards thinking and working theatrically. The etudes help playwrights start or revise their work by providing exercises in alternate thinking about their subject and their processes.

The book is useful for both student and professional playwrights at all levels who have some fundamental knowledge of dramatic writing.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Heinemann Drama (August 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0435070347
• ISBN-13: 978-0435070342
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,076,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Work Your Playwriting Muscles!, February 18, 2000

By 

David A. Crespy - See all my reviews

This review is from: Playwriting In Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically (Paperback)

Michael Wright's book offers you a jillion different exercises to stoke your creative furnace. It is a manual that I use for my intermediate-level playwrights to work their playwriting chops. He breaks down the playwriting exercises or "etudes" into several areas including Technique Etudes, Character Etudes, Plot Etudes, Etudes for Structure, Collaboration Etudes, and Unblocking Etudes. Most importantly however, his guiding principal is based on theatricality or "why must this story be told on the stage?" In the field of American playwriting, so many manuals on this process focus on realistic technique. Michael's book is one of the first that addresses ways to stretch your technique in new directions.

I've put Michael's ideas to work in my classes and more importantly in my own work as a playwright, and it has had profound effects on the quality and output of my writing. He makes you look at your characters, plot, and structure in so many different ways. My writing has become richer, more theatrical, and more inventive having experimented with etudes such as the "Age Exploration," "Imperatives Only," "Spoken Subtext," or "Secret Past."

If you're serious about playwriting, and want to really challenge yourself as a writer, buy this book, do the etudes, and watch your work take flight. You need to workout constantly as a writer, and Michael's book provides the way to do this.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Playwriting can be taught!, July 15, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playwriting In Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically (Paperback)

I just finished teaching a two-week intensive playwriting course in which a combination of novices and former self-proclaimed failures at playwriting were asked to complete a ten-minute play. The course was a success, mostly because all of the students actually completed a draft of a ten-minute play. All were acceptable, many showed great potential, and at least two could be produced as they stood at the end of the session. The reason for success? All of the students were ultimately able to drop their artistic pretentions and expectations, and approach writing a play as a craft. Many of the exercises that helped those students do so can be found in Michael Wright's little gem of a book. You can't really teach playwriting, but you can learn to use a set of tools that will help you write a play, write a play that will work dramatically. And that is the place to start. That is the way you'll actually get your characters from the beginning to an eventual end of a play. That is the way you'll get a first draft that can actually be developed.If you want to develop the craft that will let that artist in you emerge, read Playwriting in Process, and do those wonderful etudes that Michael Wright offers up over and over again. Who knows - one day you might wake up, look at yourself in the mirror, and discover you're Tennesee Williams, or Sam Shepard, or David Ives, or Wendy Wasserstein, or Paula Vogel, or Marsha Norman, or Eugene O'Neill or...

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is THE Book for Serious Playwrights, March 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Playwriting In Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically (Paperback)

If you don't have Playwriting in Process in your library, then you're missing out on an incredible companion. Whether you're a playwright, a screenwriter, or even a novelist, this book is essential for creating strong story foundations in your writing, overcoming writer's block blues, and crafting characters that actually live and breathe! This book doesn't presume to tell you HOW to write--it challenges you to write better by focusing on process rather than product and providing constructive methods and exercises to help you answer your own questions.

Anyone can put together a by-the-numbers, weekend-writer type book. Wright has given playwrights (and other writers) a resource many thousand times more valuable.