Chapter 3: The Playwright. The nature of playwriting, the
qualities that make a fine play, and the process and career of
playwriting.
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What does a playwright do? The playwright provides the point of
origin for nearly every play production...the script. More and more
today, the role of the playwright is to write the play and then to
disappear Todays playwright is considered an independent artist
whose work is executed primarily in isolation.
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Some notable playwrights Sophocles 497-406 BCEWilliam
Shakespeare 1564-1616
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Notable American playwrights
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Eugene ONeill b. Oct. 16, 1888, New York, N.Y., U.S. d. Nov.
27, 1953, Boston, Mass. in full EUGENE GLADSTONE O'NEILL foremost
American dramatist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in
1936. His masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night (produced
posthumously 1956), is at the apex of a long string of great plays,
including Beyond the Horizon (1920), Anna Christie (1922), Strange
Interlude (1928), Ah! Wilderness (1933), The Iceman Cometh (1946),
and A Moon for the Misbegotten (1947).
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Notable European playwrights
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21 st Century Americans Suzi Lori Parks Sarah Ruhl Tony Kushner
Neil La Bute
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We are all playwrights As dreamers, we are all beginning
playwrights
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WHY a playwright? A playwright makes plays as a wheelwright
makes wheels or a cartwright makes carts
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So, although a literary art, playwriting is much more than an
arrangement of words, rather it is a blueprint for a play.
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Examples of the playwrights craft Oh! Oh! Oh! (Shakespeares
OTHELLO) Howl, howl, howl, howl! (KING LEAR) Howl, howl, howl,
howl! (KING LEAR) The above are more than text, they are pretexts
for great acting... Playwrights use formal literary values that are
fully integrated into the whole of the theatrical event
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Playwriting as event writing The core of the play is
action...the ordering of observable events that can be dramatized A
series of events forms a PLOT which are expressed using the
playwrights tools Fundamentally, the playwright works with two
tools 1. Dialogue 2. Physical action
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Events of a play are linked Chronologically (cause and effect)
as in realistic theatre. Such plays are CONTINUOUS in structure and
LINEAR in chronology Many plays are discontinuous and nonlinear as
were many of our classic plays which were character-driven and
episodic Shakespeares plays shift, time, place and action Modern
and postmodern audiences accept whatever structure the play
requires
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Qualities of a fine play
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Credibility and intrigue
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Peter Pan
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CREDIBILITY is the audience imposed demand that the plays
actions and characters flow logically and believably INTRIGUE is
that quality of a play that makes us curious to know what will
happen next
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Speakability A line of dialogue should be written so that it
achieve its maximum impact when spoken...as in this example from
Shaws MAJOR BARBARA UNDERSHAFT [hugely tickled] You don't say so!
What! no capacity for business, no knowledge of law, no sympathy
with art, no pretension to philosophy; only a simple knowledge of
the secret that has puzzled all the philosophers, baffled all the
lawyers, muddled all the men of business, and ruined most of the
artists: the secret of right and wrong. Why, man, you're a genius,
master of masters, a god! At twenty-four, too!
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National Theatre production of MAJOR BARBARA
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Stageability A STAGEABLE script is one which staging and stage
business are not adornments but essentials Peter and the
Starcatcher
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Flow. A play that continuously says something to the audience
and is not constantly interrupted by changes of scenery, shifts in
time, or too many intermissions.
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Richness is not an easy quality to develop in writing It is
depth, subtlety, fineness, quality, wholeness and inevitability.
Here is an example from Margaret Edsons Pulitzer-Prize winning play
WIT VIVIAN. I dont mean to complain, but I am becoming very sick.
Very, very sick. Ultimately sick, as it were. In everything I have
done, I have been steadfast, resolutesome would say to the extreme.
Now, as you can see, I am distinguishing myself in illness....What
we have come to think of as me is, in fact, just the specimen jar,
just the dust jacket, just the white piece of paper that bears the
little black marks.
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A scene from WIT
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Depth of Characterization Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama in Cat on
a Hot, Tin Roof Anthony Sher as Richard III Laurence Olivier as
Hamlet
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Gravity A plays theme must be important... You just cant look
at it like that. You got to look at the whole thing. Now, you take
a fellow go out there, grab hold to a woman and think he got
something cause she sweet and soft to the touch. Its in the world
like everything else. Touchings nice. It feels good. But you can
lay your hand upside a horse or a cat, and that feels good tool
Whats the difference? When you grab hold to a woman, you got
something there.... Roger Robinson as Bynum
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Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1) HAMLET: To be, or not to be--that is
the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune Or to take arms against a sea of
troubles And by opposing end them. To die, to sleep-- No more--and
by a sleep to say we end The heartache, and the thousand natural
shocks That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation Devoutly to be
wished. To die, to sleep-- To sleep-- perchance to dream: ay,
there's the rub, For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause.
There's the respect That makes calamity of so long life....
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Pertinence The play needs to be relevant to its time. Arthur
Miller wrote THE CRUCIBLE in the 1950s during the McCarthy hearings
to mirror the witch-hunting frenzy in 1692 New England...
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Other qualities COMPRESSION refers to the playwrights skill in
condensing a story ECONOMY relates to an authors skill in
eliminating or consolidating characters, events, locales and words
INTENSITY is the result of the playwrights success in compression
and economy AND can take many forms...harsh, abrasive, explosive,
calm, physical, etc.
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Celebration Finally, a play celebrates life...relishing the
human experience in all its forms
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Playwrights Process DIALOGUE should sound fresh and authentic
as if the words spoken really happened CONFLICT is at the core of
drama, but if forced can come across as ineffective. Events such as
discovery, victory, rejection, revelation, separation, or death are
climactic scenes in a play and define structure. STRUCTURE connects
the various parts of the play together in a whole...some
playwrights work from outlines, others from inspiration, still
others from transcripts. But wherever the structure comes from, it
needs to work.
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Playwrights rewards Edward Albee with the TONY Award The
Pulitzer Prize The rewards are tangible and intangible. At its
best, playwriting is more than a profession and more than just a
component of theatre. It is a creative political act that enlarges
human experience and enriches our lives...
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Current American Playwrights David Mamet (born 1947) Race NYC,
2010
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Tony Kushner Born 1956
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David Henry Hwang Born 1957...was awarded the 1988 Tony, Drama
Desk, Outer Critics, and John Gassner Awards for his Broadway
debut, M. Butterfly, which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer
Prize. For his play Golden Child, he received a 1998 Tony
nomination and a 1997 OBIE Award. His new book for Rodgers &
Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song earned him his third Tony nomination
in 2003. He was the book writer of Disney's Tarzan, with score by
Phil Collins, and also co-authored the book for Elton John and Tim
Rice's Aida, which ran almost five years on Broadway and won four
Tony Awards. His most recent work is Chinglish which opens on
Broadway this fall.
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M. Butterfly Chinglish
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Joe DiPietro JOE DIPIETRO was most recently represented on
Broadway with NICE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT, a new musical based on
the works of George and Ira Gershwin. He won Tony Awards for Best
Book and Best Score for MEMPHIS, which was also awarded the 2010
Tony Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award for
Best Musical. His other shows include ALL SHOOK UP; I LOVE YOU,
YOU'RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE (the longest-running revue in
Off-Broadway history: THE TOXIC AVENGER and THE THING ABOUT MEN
(both winners of the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best
Off-Broadway musical) and FALLING FOR EVE. His plays include the
much produced comedy OVER THE RIVER AND THROUGH THE WOODS, THE ART
OF MURDER (Edgar Award, Best Mystery Play), CREATING CLAIRE and THE
LAST ROMANCE. A New Jersey native, he lives in Manhattan with his
pug, Rocco.
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Slide 38
STEPHEN SCHWARTZ Stephen Schwartz was born on March 6, 1948 in
New York City, New York, USA. He has been married to Carole
Piasecki since July 6, 1969. They have two children. Ironically,
being a major Broadway composer, he's lost the Tony award six
times, whereas for writing songs for animated movies he's received
three Oscars. His six Tony nominations are: in 1973, as Best Score
(Musical), both music and lyrics for "Pippin;" in 1977, as Best
Score, both music and lyrics, for "Godspell;" in 1978, as Best Book
(Musical) and, for both music and lyrics, as one of several people
sharing a nomination as Best Score for "Working;" in 1987, his
lyrics with the music of Charles Strouse for "Rags;" and in 2004,
as Best Score (Music and/or Lyrics) for "Wicked. He was awarded a
Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Live Theatre. His new
adaptation of the musical, "Working", was nominated for the 2011
Equity Joseph Jefferson Award for New Adaptation.writing songs for
animated movies he's received three Oscars
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Neil LaBute Neil LaBute (Born 1963)
Slide 40
Playwriting credits Filthy Talk For Troubled Times (1989) In
the Company of Men (1992) Bash: Latter-Day Plays (1999) The Shape
of Things (2001) The Distance From Here (2002) The Mercy Seat
(2002) Autobahn (2003) Fat Pig (2004) This Is How It Goes (2005)
Some Girl(s) (2005) Wrecks (2005) In A Dark Dark House (2007)
reasons to be pretty reasons to be pretty (2008) Helter Skelter
& Land of the Dead (2008) The Break of Noon (2010) The New
Testament & Helter Skelter (2009) Some White Chick (2009) The
Furies (2009) In a Foreset, Dark and Deep (2011) Reasons to be
Happy (2013)
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Suzan-Lori Parks Born 1964
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Lynn Nottage Born 1964 Ruined (2009 Pulitzer Prize) Intimate
Apparel (2003) Mother Courage (adaptation) (1998) Crumbs from the
Table of Joy (1995)
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Up close Arthur Miller Arthur Miller was one of the major
dramatists of the twentieth century. In the years before his death
he often was called the greatest living American playwright. BORN
October 17, 1925 DIED February 10, 2005 SOURCE: Marino, Stephen.
"Arthur Miller". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 16 May
2008
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3116,
accessed September 2010.]
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He earned this reputation during a career of more than seventy
years, from his first plays as an undergraduate at the University
of Michigan in the 1930s to his achieved critical success in the
1940s with All My Sons (1947) and Death of a Salesman (1949). In
the 1950s he wrote The Crucible (1953) and A View from the Bridge
(1955), refused to name names at his appearance before the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), and had a celebrated
marriage to the film actress Marilyn Monroe.
Slide 45
He produced a critically acclaimed autobiography, Timebends
(1987), and premiered new plays on Broadway and in London in the
1990s. In the new millennium, Miller remained as active as at the
beginning of his career, publishing a collection of essays, Echoes
Down the Corridor (2000), and completing two new plays,
Resurrection Blues (2002) and Finishing the Picture (2004), which
premiered a few months before his death.
Slide 46
Recipient of the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for All My
Sons, Death of a Salesman, and A View From the Bridge... ALL MY
SONS on Broadway with John Lithgow, Dianne Wiest, Josh Lucas and
Katie Holmes (2008).
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Slide 48
Death of a Salesman
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American Actors in the title role of WILLY LOMAN Philip Seymour
Hoffman Brian Dennehy
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...the Pulitzer Prize for Death of a Salesman, the Tony Award
for All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and Lifetime
Achievement and the Olivier Award for Broken Glass...
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...Miller clearly ranks with the other truly great figures of
American drama Eugene ONeill, Tennessee Williams, and Edward Albee
and the pantheon of great world dramatists, such as Chekov,
Strindberg, Shaw and Beckett.
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Broadway revival of A VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE, 2009-10
Slide 53
Arthur Miller was not only a literary giant, but also one of
the more significant political, cultural, and social figures of his
time, well-known as a man of conviction, with rock-solid integrity,
who frequently took popular and unpopular stands on many issues. At
his death, the front page headline of The New York Times called him
the moral voice of the American stage. In the great themes of his
work guilt and betrayal, family and society, individual and social
conscience, private and public responsibility he confronted the
ethical issues of his time.
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In his own words...
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Plays by Arthur Miller The Golden Years The Man Who Had All the
Luck All My Sons Death of a Salesman An Enemy of the People The
Crucible A View from the Bridge After the Fall A Memory of Two
Mondays Incident at Vichy The Price The Creation of the World and
Other Business The Archbishops Ceiling The American Clock Playing
for Time The Ride Down Mt. Morgan Broken Glass Mr. Peters
Connections Resurrection Blues Finishing the Picture
Slide 56
One-Act Plays A View from the Bridge (one-act version) A Memory
of Two Mondays Fame / The Reason Why Two Way Mirror: Elegy for a
Lady Some Kind of Love Story Danger: Memory! I Cant Remember
Anything Clara The Last Yankee Screenplays The Misfits Everybody
Wins The Crucible Autobiography Timebends