Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been tagged as “playwriting”
How does one choose a story to dramatize? Two acclaimed screenwriters give their views: “A story worth telling is one that feels new even if it’s not new. You gotta remember, there are a lot of stories out there, and what is the urgency to tell this particular story? I think it’s not going to come out of plot; it’s …
Over at Scott Myers’ blog, I read this quote from filmmaker and screenwriter Robin Swicord (pictured). She describes my writing practice when she says: “I think that all [good] dialogue comes out of the characters themselves. What happens… there’s a kind of mystical transference that happens when you’ve done this very deep thinking and feeling about your character. You begin …
Ever wish you had a personal coach or even a personal nag who would stand behind you and make you write when you don’t want to? Maybe I do, too. I’m sometimes good at self-motivating … and sometimes terrible. That’s why I’m glad I came upon the idea of a “commitment device.” A commitment device is different than a motivation …
Over at Medium, Scott Myers frames four questions to consider when choosing a play concept. “I have framed these four questions from a script reader and buyer’s perspective,” he writes. “However they work at the level of a writer thinking about the story strictly as a writing project: Does the concept have enough of a grab to give me confidence …
Ian Finley explains the typical structure of a play in simple terms. Ian holds an MFA from NYU’s Tisch School of Performing Arts. In addition to teaching for 19 years, seven of which have been at Research Triangle High School, he is a professional actor and playwright, named the NC Piedmont Laureate in Playwriting in 2012. Photo of an Amish …
One of the things I love about Tennessee Williams is how his plays use metaphor. His play titles are nearly all beautiful, evocative metaphors, and his plays are infused with rich symbols and metaphors. Many people think of metaphors simply as figures of speech. That is one form of a metaphor. Another form is to have one thing represent another. …
The Dark Noise Collective (Fatimah Asghar, Franny Choi, Nate Marshall, Aaron Samuels, Danez Smith & Jamila Woods) wrote this Statement: Call for Necessary Craft and Practice, four years ago. It’s powerful and pointed in its demand to create art that is anti-racist and refuses to uphold structural injustice. “We, the Dark Noise Collective, invite our fellow artists of every creed, …
Irony is powerful in creating a satisfying story. I came across this idea of the “ironic skill” of the hero and it’s a fantastic concept to play with. In the film “Get Out,” Chris (Daniel Kaluuya, pictured above) ends up two-thirds of the way into the movie strapped to a chair, outdone by a villain who has been way ahead …
I remember reading an interview with Sarah Ruhl a few years ago where she confided that she never uses subtext. Her characters are flatly honest. My characters, on the other hand, are devious manipulators who are never, ever honest until forced into a corner. As a result, they use subtext all the time. That is how they speak: in subtext. …
Tom Wells offers a simple model for planning one’s play. A character wants something, and sets out to get it; Things go well – the character manages to get a bit nearer to the thing they want; Things start to go badly – the character comes up against obstacles, but keeps going; Things go very wrong for the character – …