Introduction to Play Analysis

Fusing a variety of influences (Aristotle, Stanislavsky, Kenneth Burke, and structuralism), this new text takes students through progressively complex levels of play reading in which they: respond to a first reading; gather information from the play (including given circumstances); interpret the characters and relate them to the conflict; and synthesize perceptions that have been revealed through analysis. Its central principle is that conflict is the essence of drama: the book lays out a systematic process for analyzing plays, relating each element to the conflict explored in each play.

Cal Pritner began teaching in Kansas City public schools; after serving in the military, he earned MA and PhD degrees at the University of Illinois, Urbana. As a theatre professor he has taught at: Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville; Illinois State University (where he was the founding chair of the theatre department and the founding artistic director of the Illinois Shakespeare Festival); the University of Missouri-Kansas City (department chair), he has taught at the California Institute of the Arts and since 1994 he has taught in the California State Summer School for the Arts.

Scott Walters was Assistant to the Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Illinois State University, where he also taught in the Theatre Department. He was Chair of the Drama Dept. at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, and currently is the Program Director of the Arts and Ideas Program there, where he also teaches in the Drama Department.