Playwrights Teach Playwriting

Playwrights Teach Playwriting, edited by Joan Herrington and Crystal Brian, is a collection unique in the realm of 'how-to' playwriting books. These essays by such well-known playwrights as Chris Durang Marsha Norman Tina Howe Tony Kushner David Henry Hwang Marie Irene Fornes José Rivera Romulus Linney Mac Wellman Donald Margulies explore the pedagogy of playwriting, offering fascinating and valuable insights into the way established playwrights communicate their own creative methods...
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Playwrights Teach Playwriting, edited by Joan Herrington and Crystal Brian, is a collection unique in the realm of 'how-to' playwriting books. These essays by such well-known playwrights as Chris Durang Marsha Norman Tina Howe Tony Kushner David Henry Hwang Marie Irene Fornes José Rivera Romulus Linney Mac Wellman Donald Margulies explore the pedagogy of playwriting, offering fascinating and valuable insights into the way established playwrights communicate their own creative methods to young writers. Each of the playwrights included in the book has extensive experience as a teacher in a variety of venues. Their chapters offer insight into the unique vision of each playwright and provide practical and tested advice, exercises, and course structures for both students and teachers of playwriting. A concluding essay by dramaturg and literary manager, Mead Hunter, offers career advice for beginning as well as emerging playwrights. Joan Herrington is Chair of the Theatre Department at Western Michigan University. Her two books, The Playwright's Muse and I Ain't Sorry for Nothin' I Done: August Wilson's Process of Playwriting, and numerous recent articles all explore the creative process of writing and directing. Dr. Herrington currently serves as the editor of Theatre Topics. Crystal Brian is an associate professor and director of the theater program at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. She holds an MFA and PhD in Theater from the University of California, Los Angeles. In addition to her work as an award-winning professional director and producer of such playwrights as Horton Foote and Tina Howe (her world-premiere production of Foote's The Day Emily Married was named one of the top twenty productions in Southern California by the Los Angeles Times), she has published articles about Foote's work and is currently completing a critical biography of the playwright.