Product Description

This title leads new and developing playwrights through the structures of theatrical storytelling. It combines exercises in textual analysis with eight practical scriptwrighting projects. Based upon photographs and scenarios, these projects lead new playwrights to complete six original scenes. Topics covered include: building relationships with the audience, the actor, the director and the designer, plus understanding and using the physical space of the stage. Finding and developing a dramatic story, creating believable dramatic characters and dialogue and building a strong play structure through the principles of movement, action, conflict and juxtaposition, is covered together with writing effective stage directions.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #141913 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

About the Author
Val Taylor is a theatre director, writer and script consultant. She has taught actors, directors and scriptwriters for theatre, screen and radio since 1993. She heads the postgraduate programme in Creative Writing: Scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia. Val also teaches screenwriting for Screen East, in conjunction with Anglia Television. Resident - Cawston, Norfolk

Customer Reviews

Does what it says on the tin!
I found Val Taylor's "Stage Writing: A Practical Guide" lived up to her titular boast. I have read several books on playwriting and Taylor's covers all the major topics. She looks at four elements of drama (movement, action, conflict and juxtaposition) and how these can be used to create exciting theatre. It's certainly a very refreshing slant and gave me food for thought with my own work. She helpfully advises on how to format plays for the UK market and gives practical tips on how to squeeze the juice out of a scene.

Each chapter has practical exercises to illustrate the concepts and techniques she's talking about. These are also brilliant ways to generate new ideas and encourage you to start writing. Her advice is applicable to the first-time writer as well as the more experienced. She uses examples from contemporary British playwrights during the book, rather than the tried and tested American heavy weights or 19th century Europeans. This makes the book seem more relevant in its approach and introduces some radical new ideas for how to approach scenes.

However, I withhold a star because her writing style has a tendency to lapse into the rather arid and academic. I found it hard to concentrate during lengthy paragraphs which could have been delivered more succinctly. That aside, I appreciated what Val Taylor had to say as she clearly understands what makes good drama.