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The Power of the Playwright's Vision: Blueprints for the Working Writer

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I studied with Gordon Farrell as a graduate student at NYU's Dept. of Dramatic Writing. His lectures on classical drama and dramatic analysis were astounding. I'm not kidding; everyone in the class wrote notes like crazy. We'd never heard anything like it, esp. not applied to stage and screenwriting. Now that I am teaching dramatic writing myself at Austin Community College, I still draw upon what I learned about dramatic structures from Gordon to teach my own classes. His book, The Power of the Playwright's Vision, is the clearest analysis of the structures used in writing drama I have read. Not only is this invaluable knowledge for playwrights, but it also builds a foundation for screenwriting as well. If you think you know everything there is to know about structure, read this book and really get a grasp of it from a new angle. I only wish the book had been longer and gone into Gordon's analysis of classic drama and how to apply that to writing today for the stage and screen. Maybe that will be part II. I hope so. My notes from his classes are too messy to read, so I eagerly await his next book!

I have taken Professor Farrell's classes at NYU. This book distills his class teaching in a readable if sometimes repetitive way and will utimately be useful to more than just practicing playwrights. Anyone studying how plays are made will find his Yale Drama School-influenced method quite informative.

Farrell's basic thesis is that playwrights communicate their philosophical visions of the world through their plays. Not exactly ground-breaking. But neither is Aristotle when he says plays must have a beginning, middle and end. Farrel is not entirely artsy, either. If a play fails to capture an audience, he says, it has failed.

So, how to go about capturing an audience with your vision? Farrell gives the blueprints of successful plays and dramatic genres and provides commentary on their uses in communicating certain basic ideas like:

One person can change the world.
One person can't change the world.
Only groups of people can change the world.
Things change, but for the worse, and people can't stop this deterioration.

He talks a lot of isms (Naturalism, Realism, Expressionism...) but keeps them extremely distinct, one of the advantages of how he teaches his classes. He also keeps you excited and engaged, even if it requires prose that resembles the patter of an infomercial.

For those who can't make it to NYU or Yale to study drama, this is a highly-readable version of the basic curriculum and a good companion to play anthologies like THEATRE ALIVE! by Norman A. Bert. Some will take exception to Farrell's simplifications and omissions. In my opinion, what THE POWER OF THE PLAYWRIGHT'S VISION loses in simplification, it makes up for in inspiration.

As a university theatre instructor, I feel that Gordon Farrell's "The Power of the Playwright's Vision: Blueprints for the Working Writer" is highly valuable not only students of playwrighting, but also to students who are just beginning to study dramatic literature. Farrell offers various tools by which the student can intelligently approach plays written in a varriety of modern styles. Among the playwriting styles that Farrell renders accessible to even the most inexperienced student are surrealism and expressionism. Farrell also foregrounds some of the differences between realism and naturalism--a muddy point that baffles many students. The historical background sections that are stratigically placed AFTER the description of each playwriting style allows the student to perceive the manner in which social developments have influenced the art of playwriting. As a text that connects artistic style with history, Farrell's book offers students the knowledge and terminology necessaery to begin a meaningful discussion about drama in the modern era. University instructors should consider assigning "The Power of the Playwright's Vision" in their Introduction to Theatre courses, as well as their playwwriting courses.

As a university theatre instructor, I feel that Gordon Farrell's "The Power of the Playwright's Vision: Blueprints for the Working Writer" is highly valuable not only students of playwriting, but also to students who are just beginning to study dramatic literature. Farrell offers various tools by which the student can intelligently approach plays written in a variety of modern styles. Among the playwriting styles that Farrell renders accessible to even the most inexperienced student are surrealism and expressionism. Farrell also illuminates some of the differences between realism and naturalism--a muddy point that baffles many students. The historical background sections that are strategically placed AFTER the description of each playwriting style allows the student to perceive the manner in which social developments have influenced the art of playwriting. As a text that connects artistic style with history, Farrell's book offers students the knowledge and terminology necessary to begin a meaningful discussion about drama in the modern era. University instructors should consider assigning "The Power of the Playwright's Vision" in their Introduction to Theatre courses, as well as their playwriting courses.