Writing Your First Play - Softcover

Hall, Roger

Softcover

ISBN 10: 024080290X ISBN 13: 9780240802909

Publisher: Routledge, 1998

Synopsis

Writing Your First Play provides the beginning playwright with the tools and motivation to tell a story through dramatic form. Based in a series of exercises which gradually grow more complex, the books helps the reader to understand the basic elements of drama, conflict, and action. The exercises help the reader to become increasingly sophisticated in the use of dramatic formats, turning simple ideas into a viable play.

Topics include:
the role of action in drama;
developing action and conflict to reveal character;
writing powerful and persuasive dialog;
writing from personal experience:pros and cons;
how to begin the story and develop the storyline.

This new edition is thoroughly updated and contains new examples based on contemporary plays. The author has added additional writing exercises and a new student-written one act play. It also contains a new chapter on how to sell your play once it is written.

With examples based on student work, this text both inspires and educates the student and fledgling playwright, providing solid tools and techniques for the craft of writing a drama.

Roger A. Hall, a professor of theatre at James Madison University, had taught playwriting for nearly 20 years. Many of his students have gone on to write for theatre, television, and the screen. He has written numerous plays and articles and has acted and directed extensively in the theatre.

About this title

About the Author

Roger A. Hall

From the Back Cover

The second edition of Writing Your First Play provides the beginning playwright with the tools and motivation to tell a story through dramatic form. Based on many years of teaching experience, this book breaks the action, dialogue, characters and conflict into separate exercises that lead naturally from one to another and become increasingly more sophisticated. Before the reader has realized it, simple ideas have taken on the shape of a play. Topics include understanding the role action plays in drama; developing action and conflict to reveal character; writing powerful and persuasive dialogue; writing from personal experience, and how it can be both enriching and dangerous; and knowing where to start the story and what details help to develop the storyline.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 024080290X
• ISBN 13: 9780240802909
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 178