Writing Your First Play Review

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(More customer reviews)This book is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in playwriting - whether you're overwhelmed by the idea, struggling with a manuscript, mulling over completed drafts needing revision, or seeking a perspective for understanding the craft. It really does take you step by step from idea through revision. It distills a deep understanding of the dramatic art into a straightforward approach to structure, character and technique. Exercises to guide and stimulate the budding playwright are woven throughout. Later sections build intelligently on earlier learnings, and important points are returned to for reinforcement. I particularly liked the warnings about what NOT to do and why, the section on the nine functions of dialog (the best I've ever read), and the included Writer's Workbook. Brief and to the point, the book is loaded with useful information and intelligently organized. It is clear that Sossaman brings a wide knowledge of dramatic literature, a clear understanding of the craft of playwriting, and his own impressive teaching experience to this work. For sure, many of the best plays I've read or seen over the last forty years ring true to his guidance, and the others would certainly have benefited from his solid nuts and bolts advice.

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Concentrating on clearly stated fundamental principles, this brief but efficient reference guide takes writers, step-by-step, to the completion of their first play. A practical workbook, it covers everything from selecting an idea to doing critical revision—and how to avoid the frustrating errors that typically plague first time playwrights. Chapter topics include situation and story, characters, play structure, keys to holding an audience, dialogue, stage movement, and theme. Exercises throughout the book focus on the playwright and the play in progress, allowing readers to better assess their own drafts. For individuals and community writers groups—even those with little theatre-going experience, as they pen their first one-act or full-length naturalistic drama.

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