The Elements of Playwriting

Being a playwright means more than just putting pen to paper—it means expressing a personal point of view, bringing a vision to life, developing dimensional characters, structuring a play’s action, creating effective characters, creating effective dialogue, and finding producers, directors, and actors to bring a work to life. Catron, a respected writer, producer, director, and instructor, explores these themes and more, presenting the basic principles necessary for writing a stageworthy play. By emphasizing stageworthiness, he shows how to avoid common pitfalls, such as treating a play as literature or being overinfluenced by cinematic writing. Examples from classical and modern plays are included throughout, as are exercises for sharpening and developing skills and practical guidelines on working with actors and directors, getting produced and published, and finding an agent.