Synopsis
The Playwright's Guidebook - An Insightful Primer on the Art of Dramatic Writing
$16 Published by Faber & Faber
Although most of the currently popular handbooks have good ideas in them, they all suffer from the same problems - they're poorly organized, are composed mostly of quirky, idiosyncratic advice on how specific playwrights have gone about writing their own work, and are full of abstract theorizing on the nature of art
As a result, they fail to offer any concrete information on how to construct a well-written play or any useful guidelines and exercises
Moreover, few of these books are actually written by working playwrights. Out of frustration, Spencer wrote his own book. The result, The Playwright's Guidebook, is a clear, concise, and engaging handbook
Spencer addresses the important principles of structure, includes insightful writing exercises that build upon one another, explores the creative process, and troubleshoots recurrent problems that playwrights actually face
"Stuart Spencer's meticulous handbook does something I had thought was almost impossible: it describes, clarifies and analyzes the mysterious process of building a play. And moreover, he does so with the grace and respect of a first-rate teacher for the intelligence and potential of his students. There is no ideology, no formula for instant success here. Just the distilled experience of a real practitioner generous enough to share, and reliable enough to be trusted" ~ - Jon Robin Baitz, author of Ten Unknowns and Substance of Fire
"Stuart Spencer's The Playwright's Guidebook is indispensable. Clearly and thoroughly, Mr. Spencer - a playwright himself - leads all playwrights (not only the beginner) through the travails of creation and the jungle of production. He is to be congratulated" ~ - Edward Albee
"Eureka! A clearly written, well-structured, intelligent how-to book about playwrighting. Like the good teacher and good writer that he is, Stuart Spencer guides rather than browbeats. Should be next to the laptop of any aspiring, or working, playwright" ~ Warren Leight, author of Side Man