Fifty Playwrights on their Craft offers, through interviews, an in-depth survey of the most important contemporary playwrights working in the UK and US today as they probe key questions and considerations around their craft. The volume's editors spoke to fifty contemporary playwrights whose voices, thoughts and opinions populate this fascinating study.
Through interrogating questions such as how does playwriting help a global dialogue; where do playwrights find the ideas that become the stories and narratives within their plays; how can the stage inform the playwright's creative process; how does crossing boundaries between artforms push the living artform of playwriting forward; and will there be playwrights in another 50 years, we come to understand how and why playwrights write what they do and gain insight into their processes and motivations.
Together, the interviews provide an inter-generational dialogue between playwrights whose work spans over six decades, providing unique insight into the craft behind the words we hear on the stage.
Featuring interviews with playwrights such as Edward Bond, Katori Hall, Lynn Nottage, Chris Goode, David Greig, Willy Russell, David Henry Hwang, Alecky Blythe, Anne Washburn and Simon Stephens, the book offers an unprecedented insight into the key playwrights of today, as well as multiple perspectives on this area of dramatic writing.
Industry Reviews
Fifty Playwrights is a substantial collection ... The reward is an invaluable awareness of the dramatic community writing in English today ... This collection is a joy to read, and each reader is sure to connect with at least some of the voices it presents ... For a beginning playwright, this book is a great early-career springboard to launch one toward their future. For an avid reader or watcher of theatre, it is a unique glimpse of the artists behind the art. For someone who spends their life around the arts, it is a new telling of an old story. * Rain Taxi *
A timely contribution to the available literature on the art and craft of playwriting ... All the interviews offer rich and detailed insights into the minds of the writers, pointing to their process but also to the political and ethical foundation of their work ... This is an important contribution to the literature on playwriting and will undoubtedly be of tremendous use to any aspiring or experienced playwright. * Contemporary Theatre Review *