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For over two decades, Stephen Jeffreys's remarkable series of workshops attracted writers from all over the world and shaped the ideas of many of today's leading playwrights and theatre-makers. Now, with this inspiring, highly practical book, you too can learn from these acclaimed Masterclasses. Playwriting reveals the various invisible frameworks and mechanisms that are at the heart of each and every successful play. Drawing on a huge range of sources, it deconstructs playwriting into its constituent parts, and offers illuminating insights into: Structure – an in-depth exploration of the fundamental elements of drama, enabling you to choose instinctively the most effective structure for your play Character – advice on how to generate and write credible characters by exploring their three essential dimensions: story, breadth and depth How to Write – techniques for writing great dialogue, dynamic scenes and compelling subtext, including how to improve your writing by approaching it from unfamiliar directions What to Write – how to adopt different approaches to finding your material, how to explore the fundamental 'Nine Stories', and how to evaluate the potential of your ideas Written by a true master of the craft, this authoritative guide will provide playwrights at every level of experience with a rich array of tools to apply to their own work. This edition, edited by Maeve McKeown, includes a Foreword by April De Angelis. Intro -- Title page -- Contents -- Foreword -- Editor's Note -- Introduction -- 1. Structure -- Theatre Events Structure -- I. Story Structure -- The Three Elements of Story -- The Three-part Story: Macbeth -- The Advantages of Conventional Story Structure -- Story Structure in Plays with Multiple Characters -- II. Time and Place Structure -- Open/Closed Time and Place -- 1. Closed Time, Closed Place -- (a) Choose an interesting location -- (b) Use the interval -- (c) Plot devices -- (d) What happens offstage? -- 2. Open Time, Closed Place -- 3. Closed Time, Open Place -- 4. Open Time, Open Place -- The three-act play -- The four-act play -- The multi-scene play -- The two-set play -- Recurring settings -- Panorama plays -- A dominant scene -- Lots of scenes -- Scene changes -- III. Experimental Structures -- Disrupted/Simultaneous Time and Space -- 1. Disrupted Time, Closed Place -- 2. Disrupted Time, Open Place -- 3. Disrupted Time, Simultaneous Place -- 4. Open Time, Simultaneous Place -- Playing with Narrative -- Mimimalism -- Inundation -- Interruption -- Repetition -- Appropriation -- Subverting Other Dramatic Conventions -- Character -- Language -- Theatre's Relationships with the Audience, the Artist and the World -- 2. Character -- I. The Three Dimensions of Character -- 1. The Character's Story -- The Past: The Backstory of the Play -- The Present: The Action of the Play -- The Future: What Happens Next?? -- 2. The Character's Breadth -- Physical Characteristics -- 'Fads and Quirks' -- What the character says about themselves -- What other characters say about them -- What they do -- What the writer says about the character -- 3. The Character's Depth -- II. Working with Character -- Aristotle's Four Criteria -- 'Good' -- 'Appropriate' -- (a) The character who is appropriate to the the task, and succeeds.
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