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.
'What Stephen Jeffreys doesn't know about playwriting isn't worth knowing'
Stephen Daldry
'Stephen Jeffreys is as important a teacher as he is brilliant a writer... Without him, I wouldn't have been able to write the plays that I have written'
Simon Stephens
'An incredibly useful writing helpmeet. As witty and humane as its author'
Emma Thompson
'What Stephen taught me has shaped my mind and I have shared this with countless writers'
Kwame Kwei-Armah
'Stephen was a true mentor... I still draw upon much of what he taught me today'
Abi Morgan
'Like a bird in the air, Stephen was utterly in his element as a teacher. We sat spellbound'
Phyllida Lloyd