Chapter 4

1
Chapter 4 Image Maker The Playwright

• A play in a book is only the shadow of a play and
  not even a clear shadow of it. . . . It is
  hardly more than an architects blueprint of a
  house not yet built or built and destroyed.
• Tennessee Williams

2
Chapter Summary

• The playwright envisions the plays world, its
  people, words environment, objects,
  relationships, emotions, attitudes, and events
• Playwright play builder
• Playwriting is a creative act that enlarges our
  understanding of human experience.
• Playwriting enriches our appreciation of life.

3
The Play and the Audience

• Experience of watching a play divided
• Emotional involvement
• Aesthetic detachment
• Empathy for characters draws us into world of
  play.
• Awareness that its a play keeps us at a
  distance.
• Catharsis
• A cleansing or purging of strong emotions.
• Empathy for fictional characters inspires
  emotions such as pity and fear, but at a
  comfortable distance.

4
The Play and the Audience

• Most playwrights encourage empathy in audience
  for characters
• An exception Bertolt Brecht
• Alienation effect (Verfemdung)
• Distance encourages judgments about social and
  economic issues in play

5
The Play A Blueprint for a House Not Yet Built

• Playwright
• Writes a play to express some aspect of human
  experience
• Shapes a personal vision into an organized,
  meaningful whole
• Script
• Blueprint for a specific dramatic experience
• Play attains finished form only in performance.

6
The Playwrights Beginnings

• Modes of playwriting
• Start with idea, dream, and/or image, then work
  out an action to express it
• Start with character or real person then develop
  action around him or her
• Start with a situation, then let it unfold
• No two playwrights use the same approach

7
The Playwrights Beginnings

• Examples
• Bertolt Brecht
• Started with outline, then summarized social and
  political ideas before building a story based on
  the outline
• Sam Shepard
• Handwrites draft, then works out revisions in
  theatre before writing final draft

8
The Playwrights Role Production

• Once script is written, playwright takes a
  backseat to director, designers, actors,
  producers.
• Exceptions
• Playwrights who direct (e.g., David Mamet)
• Playwrights who act/produce (e.g., Shakespeare)
• Playwright may contribute to production through
  script revisions.

9
The Playwrights Tools

• Playwrights toolbox
• Plot What happens in a play
• Character The people in a play
• Language What the characters say (dialogue)
• Conflict
• Clash of personal, moral, or social forces
• Plot works toward resolution of central conflict

10
The Playwrights Tools

• Plot and performability
• Powerful and sustained dramatic impact
• Compression
• Play unfolds faster than real time.
• Economy
• Whatever does not contribute to the overall
  effect is omitted.
• Intensity
• Emotional intensity holds audiences attention.

11
The Playwrights Tools

• Characters must be
• Believable
• Multifaceted
• Complex
• My chief aim in playwriting is the creation of
  character. . . . My plays have been an effort
  to explore the beauty and meaning in the
  confusion of living.
• Tennessee Williams

12
The Playwrights Tools

• Dialogue
• Must be speakable
• Must contain potential for gesture and meaning

13
The Playwrights Industry

• Literary agencies
• International Creative Management (ICM)
• William Morris Agency
• Essential connections
• Agent
• Producer
• Director

14
New American Writing Alternative Voices

• Late 1980s saw emergence of playwrights
  representing underrepresented minorities
• Gay and lesbian
• African American
• Latino/a

15
New American Writing Alternative Voices

• Gay and lesbian writing
• Mart Crowley, Boys in the Band
• Introduced sexual orientation as acceptable
  subject
• Important works
• Bent, Martin Sherman
• The Normal Heart, Larry Kramer
• Angels in America, Tony Kushner
• How I Learned to Drive, Paula Vogel

16
New American Writing Alternative Voices

• African American writing
• Early works
• Mulatto, Langston Hughes (1930)
• A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry (1959)
• Important works
• Slave Ship, Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
• Ma Raneys Black Bottom, August Wilson
• The America Play, Suzan-Lori Parks
• for colored girls who have considered
  suicide/when the rainbow is enuf, Ntozake Shange

17
New American Writing Alternative Voices

• Asian American writing
• Early works pushed back against stereotypes
• Important works
• Sisters Matsumoto, Philip Kan Gotanda
• L.A. Stories, Han Ong
• Stop Kiss, Diana Son
• M. Butterfly, David Henry Hwang

18
New American Writing Alternative Voices

• U.S. Latino/a writing
• North American Spanish-speaking theatre in
  existence since late 1500s
• Modern era Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino
  (The Farm Workers Theatre)
• Important works
• Anna in the Tropics, Nilo Cruz
• The Conduct of Life, María Irene Fornés
• The Floating Island Plays, Eduardo Machado
• Roosters, Milcha Sanchez-Scott

19
Core Concepts

• When theatrical process starts with script,
  playwright is most essential artist in a
  production
• Playwright builds the world of the play
• Events
• Characters
• Meaning
• Playwright hands finished script to director,
  actors, designers