The Playwright's Process: Learning the Craft from Today's Leading Dramatists

Rating:
Summary: A great coursebook for the amateur
Review: Buzz McLaughlin's book is a must-read for new playwrights and experienced dramatists alike. Having used this book in my beginning playwriting course, I've been very pleased with McLaughlin's intelligent reworking of Lagos Egri's Art of Dramatic Writing. In particular I've found McLaughlin's character milestones a very powerful method of building character from a strong emotional base. Also his explanation of the Sonata structure of basic playwriting is very useful to keep in mind for rewriting. Since the book is not primarily a textbook, but a system of writing based on the ideas of busy, working playwrights, it has a very engaging style, and a compelling argument. The focus of the book is understanding how professional playwrights deal with the practical issues of plot & character studies, dramatic premise, revision, and new play development. It would be useful if, in the next edition of the book, McLaughlin would include a 15-week workbook as a companion to this volume.

This book should be required reading in all fundamental playwriting courses

Rating:
Summary: Terrific as classroom text
Review: I began using this book as a text for my introductory playwriting class after meeting Buzz at a playwright's retreat. It is an excellent text for beginning playwrights. The counsel provided by numerous successful writers communicates that while there is no one way to write, or to engage in the process of writing plays, there are some areas in common among creative artists that are worth considering. I especially find the chapter on formating useful. Formating is always a difficult issue. As someone who has acted as a literary manager, it is easy to disregard plays that are physically difficult to read. I strongly recommend this book to anyone considering a text for a beginning playwriting course. It provides useful, logical information that serves as a launching point for fruitful class discussion and instruction.

Rating:
Summary: Terrific as classroom text
Review: I began using this book as a text for my introductory playwriting class after meeting Buzz at a playwright's retreat. It is an excellent text for beginning playwrights. The counsel provided by numerous successful writers communicates that while there is no one way to write, or to engage in the process of writing plays, there are some areas in common among creative artists that are worth considering. I especially find the chapter on formating useful. Formating is always a difficult issue. As someone who has acted as a literary manager, it is easy to disregard plays that are physically difficult to read. I strongly recommend this book to anyone considering a text for a beginning playwriting course. It provides useful, logical information that serves as a launching point for fruitful class discussion and instruction.

Rating:
Summary: A must for would-be writers
Review: I wish I would have read this book six years ago. McLaughlin's book follows the playwright's process from conception to completion -- offering practical exercises and also advice from leading contemporary playwrights. The true brilliance of this book, other than it's stunningly lucid practicality, is supporting quotes from working playwrights, who expound in keen detail on the playwrighting process. The title of this book is misleading. This book is just as pertinent to screenwriters and fiction writers. It offers practical advice for problems every writer encounters. In particular, the "Playwright's Process" presents helpful exercises on nursing an initial idea into a functional, three-dimensional story. Rather than impress reader's with his knowledge of theatre vocabulary, McLaughlin charts a clear course for readers by focusing on the elements of playwrighting most newcomers struggle with -- particularly structure (character development, plotting, etc.). What makes this book so pragmatic is that McLaughlin, an experienced teacher and playwright, asks relevant questions concerning the mechanics of playwrighting. The playwright's quotes aren't presented in a round table fashion, but rather in response to insightful questions. This book covers all angles. It address the nuts and bolts of story writing, and also touches on issues like writer's block, and more importantly, how to deal with it. I was depressed after reading this book because I felt I had wasted six years, aimlessly throwing ideas and characters onto the page. If you are an aspiring screenwriter and have read Syd Field's "Screenplay," place it on your reference shelf. The "Playwright's Process" should be your writing Bible.

Rating:
Summary: A course on the craft & science of writing a play
Review: In this extraordinary book, Buzz McLaughlin demonstrates his amazing skill as a teacher and as a playwright. While other books do promote features that are common in theatrical works that have withstood the test of time, Buzz McLaughlin is more concerned about providing the exact science of playwriting. Playwriting, of course, is more an art than a science, but you might not think so after reading this book. He carefully lays out every step of the process, beginning with the development of an idea, the foundation needed to establish what will eventually become a play. And throughout his skillful descriptions of the steps to follow in creating a play, he seasons his lessons with advice from respected modern playwrights, many of whom follow exactly the guidelines Mr. McLaughlin sets forth. The insight from these young, living, modern playwrights serves as excellent inspiration to the beginning playwright, especially one who is already very familiar with plays and playwrights, if not with theatre in general. Not only does Mr. McLauhlin provide excellent examples during his lessons, and the sage advice of produced playwrights, but he also gives the reader exercises in writing. To go through the book one chapter at a time and to work through the exercises he provides is to take an actual (college-level) course in playwriting. While the book may serve the beginning dramatist best, it would be a welcome addition to the library of any playwright wishing to better develop his or her craft.

Rating:
Summary: Supplement to the Art of Dramatic Writing
Review: This book is full of quotes from leading dramatists, yes - which sometimes agree with McLaughlin's discussion of process, and sometimes hint that there's a lot more there. He is a very good writer, and can be persuasive in getting his point across, but the "process" he outlines is essentially an attempted refinement of Lajos Egri's The Art of Dramatic Writing - in other words, classical prescriptivism.

I'm on the record, of course, for disagreeing with Egri - I don't believe that premise should be central for your entire play, and I find Egri's method of three-dimensional character development by writing biographies to be tedious, boring, and inherently untheatrical. McLaughlin re-creates Egri's methods in a tone that is more accessible to the playwriting student of today, but he lacks Egri's penetrating analysis of conflict and takes Egri's tools out of their context, where the original presentation was superior if you happen to agree with the ideas.

It's worth talking about premise, since the matter is so controversial among playwriting texts. There are two points of view on the subject: premise is central to a good play, and theme arises from the play and should not be put first. Essentially, those who place premise first are realists, and tend to write plays in the realist vein. I am not a realist, though I recognize that excellent plays can be and have been written in that genre. If you want to write realist plays, this book works well as a supplement for Egri's Art of Dramatic Writing; it is not a functional substitute. If you don't, you should head to other texts, because this one is quite openly biased.

Still, McLaughlin has a couple of good points of view in the book for any playwright. His chapter on ideas is one of the better ones out there; if you need help on that area, this book might be worth it on that alone. And his chapter on practical issues in playwriting is solid, if not perfect, but this advice would be available in books that will be more amenable to your style.

If you agree with the realists that premise should be central, buy this and Egri. Use Egri for your dramatic theory, and McLaughlin for your practical writing. If not, look for another text.

Rating:
Summary: Pupils of Buzz
Review: We are in Buzz McLaughlin's playwrighting class at Drew University. His book is the textbook for the course, and moreover our personal Bible(kidding). If there is one word to describe Buzz it would have to be visionary. The way he explicates the process of playwrighting with wonderful accessible analogies is genious. We have personally never had such a text. The writing flows beautifully and the interviews are nothing less than illuminating. We are only in the middle of the course now(1/31/02) but we can already see that this class will be one of the highlights of our college careers.

Rating:
Summary: So So
Review: While books on the craft and science of playwriting are a dime a dozen in the market, this is the One and Only book that teaches you the Art of playwriting. A classic.