(Part 2) Best playwriting books according to redditors
We found 85 Reddit comments discussing the best playwriting books. We ranked the 33 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
To give you a few examples of great contemporary writers :
Jerzy Grotowski - Towards a Poor Theatre
Antonin Artaud - The Theatre and Its Double
Bertolt Brecht - Brecht on Theatre
Jacques Ranciere - The Emancipated Spectator
Guy Debord - The Society of the Spectacle
Del Close + Charna Halpern - Truth in Comedy
Extreme Exposure - An Anthology of Solo Performance Texts from the 20th Century
New Downtown Now - An Anthology of New Theatre from Downtown New York
Those books should give you a good introduction to directing in the theatre outside of traditional American realism. Where were you hoping to go to school?
The Playwright's Guidebook: An Insightful Primer on the Art of Dramatic Writing by Stuart Spencer has a list of plays to read.
You should read the major Greek plays, all the Shakespeare plays, and plays by Ibsen and Anton Chekhov. These plays are referred to so often that you'll be lost if you are unable to catch the frequent references. You definitely need to know what that stupid fucking seagull represents. Stupid Fucking Bird :)
I've noticed that regional theaters are relying heavily on the Pulitzer Prize winning plays for their seasons.
I've been doing a lot of research on theaters in major American cities and this gives me a better idea of what plays are being done. It is also a good way to find new opportunities. For example, lately I have been researching the Los Angeles scene and came across The Road Theatre Company which has a Summer Playwrights Festival. But what I found curious is that they have a theater in the NoHo Senior Arts Colony. That is the first retirement home I've seen for creatives with its own theater!
The Power of the Playwright's Vision by Gordon Farrell: I have the privilege of being able to learn from Gordon Farrell directly this year (he is, among other things, a professor at NYU's Dept. of Dramatic Writing) and I cannot endorse his genius enough. His understanding of the techniques and mechanisms that playwrights use in their craft is mind-boggling, and they're catalogued in this book in a surprisingly digestible way. The best thing about this book is that it isn't prescriptive; Farrell doesn't tell you "this is how you write a naturalist play" or "this is where you would always put a reversal." Rather, he familiarizes you with all the tools you can use to write an effective script and how to combine them. To me, this is as good as it gets.
Three Uses of the Knife by David Mamet: This is a slightly more controversial (and much shorter) text, in which famed playwright David Mamet sits down and tells you what it's all about, man. It's rather rambly, and some people say it's contradictory, but I absolutely love the way he breaks down dramatic technique in informal ways. It's tangential and a bit of a mess at times, but you get a sense of why Mamet's plays are so damn good. Farrell's guide you understand rationally, this one you just experience.
Those are my two favorites, and I highly recommend you read both.
EDIT: Forgot about a very important piece of information that you probably already know but that I'll toss in regardless. Reading books on playwriting is a good way to get better, but the best way to get better is to write more plays. There is no better teacher than experience (read: catastrophic failure). Yes, reading books is a great way to understand the techniques and basic structure you can use, but don't cling to the things you read about. Martin McDonagh--arguably today's most successful playwright--came to prominence by writing plays that actually disrespected theatrical convention through his elaborate staging and action sequences (smashing skulls with hammers, shooting cats, shooting an oven with a shotgun). He didn't study classical playwriting techniques, he watched a lot of movies and read Jorge Luis Borges and brought that to the stage.
Basically what I'm saying is: finding your voice is worth a great deal more than learning the "right" way to write.
I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the state is protected in most cases, and the only time someone can sue is if they can prove there was some kind of conspiracy or cover up. I don't know if it's only some states, or an old law. I believe it was in the book "Living Justice" http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0743483464?pc_redir=1396649393&robot_redir=1
Long Day's Journey into Night by Eugene O'Neill
The House of Blue Leaves by John Guare
http://www.amazon.com/House-Blue-Leaves-John-Guare/dp/0573610282/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1335199061&sr=8-1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_House_of_Blue_Leaves
I totally used to have a book called "Nazi Psychoanalysis". It was super heavy, so I never got very far through it, but I had it because it was by the guy who wrote "The Vampire Lectures", which I was using for a paper. I DO have a book that seems silly, but is really gripping in regards to the historical examples.
Okay, so I was browsing your wish lists and this scarf holder made me (i'm somewhat lame...) really excited! I haven't seen one before and it would solve my scarf storage issues... I'm a flouncy Drama student, I own a lot of flouncy colourful scarves, but never know where to keep them. You are one smart cookie. :)
This book is very high on my book wish list right now, because I'm writing a play. And why is that awesome? Because I'm writing a play! And directing it! And I'm excited... :P
Anyway, long post... let's be twinsies :)
I’ve found Sea Wall, but I wasn’t able to find the script for A Life.
Real!
Hi and welcome here :)
I bought the Amazon kindle version
https://www.amazon.com/Love-Modern-Classics/dp/1472574737/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466151698&sr=8-1&keywords=Love%2C+Love%2C+Love+%28Modern+Classics%29+mike+bartlett
of course from my Amazon site, I don't know where you live so I linked the .com one ;) Hope this can help and good luck! :)