Books on writing plays

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 6:27pm

What are considered good text books for learning to write plays?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 7:02pm

I've taught playwriting at the college level, but I never used a textbook. I'm sure there are exceptions (I do like Aaron Frankel's book WRITING THE BROADWAY MUSICAL, though it's probably dated now), but I find most of them stifling. Writers of such books have a tendency to give you a list of rules, many of them practical; but it's hard to write when you sit down with a blank sheet of paper and a list of 137 things NOT to do.

So let me ask: for whom is the book you seek intended? What age? How much experience in the theater? How much experience with creative writing?

Often, the best solution for somebody with some theatergoing experience is simply to sit down and write a play. Don't worry if what you write is "good", but also don't fall in love with every word.

Remember that the word "drama" (which in this context includes comedy) originally comes from the Greek word that means "to do". What are your characters doing? ("Doing" on stage doesn't mean blowing up stuff as it does in action films.) Talking may or may not be doing depending on whether the talking is intended to change something.

When your first draft is written, get your friends to help you read it out loud. Listen carefully. Ask what your friends think, but keep in mind that few people are trained to skillfully analyze a play in one sitting. Take their suggestions as hints, not gospel. Be very leery of anyone who tells you you have no talent based on your early efforts.

Rewrite your play or write another one. Repeat as needed.

(ETA there are modernist plays in which the characters do nothing. Those are the exceptions that prove the rule and require enormous skill and experience. Not a good place to start.) Updated On: 9/27/12 at 07:02 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:03pm

Purchase "Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays" by David Ball.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:15pm

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't read Ball's book because I've heard good things about it. CapnHook raises an interesting point: sometimes books about play READING are more helpful than books about playwriting: the former often focus on what great plays DO accomplish rather than listing what bad plays DON'T.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 9/27/12 at 10:48pm

I just took a play writing course at a University and oddly enough we never read a playwriting book-we read plays and we wrote. We wrote and read our plays out loud. Doing was so much more important that reading about structure.

I think having a love and knowledge of plays helps. Seeing as many as you can see helps too.

Three books I recommend are:
Writing Your First Play by Roger Hall
The Art & Craft of Playwriting by Jeffrey Hatcher

And if you want playwriting lessons distilled in a succinct and meaningful way:

Playwriting: Brief & Brilliant by Julie Jensen. I found this gem at the NYU bookstore and it has been invaluable. Im not much of a reader and it really gives you great nuggets of form about playwriting.

I also say buy the plays of a playwright you admire and whose style appeals to your aesthetic. It can teach you alot.

[broadwaybelter]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 12:20am

The Playwrights Guidebook by Stuart Spencer. Very insightful. Worth a read.

[sinister teashop]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 12:28pm

Mamet's advice to his team of writers on a television show is one of the shortest and sweetest:

http://movieline.com/2010/03/23/david-mamets-memo-to-the-writers-of-the-unit/

Books on writing plays are a bit like armchair travel guides. The only difference is if you use them while you're actually writing they can really screw you up.

The best books I think for dramatists are often about acting since they force the writer to think about "wants" and "actions" that their characters are bound up in. Without a serious want or action you do not have a play.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 9/28/12 at 7:26pm

Reading lots of plays is essential.

Reading about acting is an inspired idea. In fact, knowledge of any aspect of stagecraft is useful, but knowledge of acting particularly so. (Someone should share this idea with directors.)

I haven't read Jensen's book (I suppose it's obvious I'm not a fan of the genre) but I knew her casually when she taught at UCLA. Very smart lady. I doubt she would steer you wrong.

[Leadingplayer]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 3:07am

Thanks for the advice (sorry not to respond but I've been away from the site)


I see and read plays constantly and have studied acting and most aspects of theatre. I've only ever taken one creative writing class (and there was no text book so I guess you guys are on the right track)

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/29/12 at 7:58am

John van Druten's (long out-of-print) PLAYWRIGHT AT WORK is one of the best books ever written on writing plays. His techniques are a little old-fashioned, obviously, but most of it is surprisingly still valid.

[darquegk]

Posted: 9/25/13 at 2:27pm

I am completing a project to finish my MA focused on writing musical theatre. The books on the subject I have read and would recommend, out of about twenty, are the following:

Stephen Sondheim- Finishing The Hat
Stephen Sondheim- Look, I Made A Hat
Lehman Engel and Howard Kissel- Words With Music
Aaron Frankel- Writing The Broadway Musical
Tom Jones- Making Musicals-
Allen Cohen and Stephen Rosenhaus- Writing Musical Theater
David Spencer- The Musical Theatre Writer's Survival Guide

Are all of these perfect? No, but out of what I have read, these are the most useful theoretical books I could find on musical theatre specifically.

[Jungle Red]

Posted: 9/25/13 at 5:41pm

I second the Playwrights Guidebook. It's very good, handson instruction, with writing exercises.

I've sadly lost my copy.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 9/25/13 at 6:16pm

[eperkins]

Posted: 9/26/13 at 10:57am

These were my course books when I was studying writing:

The Art of Dramatic Writing
by Lajos Egri

Poetics
by Aristotle

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 9/26/13 at 12:17pm

"I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't read Ball's book because I've heard good things about it."

That's an odd reason not to read a book.

[phantomvegas2]

Posted: 9/26/13 at 12:50pm

I second Stuart Spencer's Playwright's Guidebook. Wow.

[Alex Kulak2]

Posted: 11/27/19 at 10:06am

To quote Mamet, “There’s no rules, but there’s one law: Don’t Be Boring”.

[fashionguru_23]

Posted: 11/27/19 at 11:03am

Something that inspired me was reading "The Great Parade" by Peter Flichia, especially his thoughts on "Here's Love". He discusses the musical, and what he would have done with the show. Based on "Miracle on 34th Street", Meredith Wilson missed the mark on how to musicalize the story. 

I know you asked for plays, but it was something that inspired me in my writing.