Workshopping the New Play: A Guide for Playwrights Directors and Dramaturgs

by George Sapio

Overview

(Applause Acting Series). Workshopping the New Play is a guide for playwrights, directors, dramaturgs, and other theater professional and students. The book begins with an overview of the basics of playwriting and goes on to cover all aspects of the new-play workshopping process: selecting a director and/or dramaturg to run the workshop sessions, assembling a team of actor/readers and dealing with constructive criticism, putting together a staged reading of one's work, structuring a successful talkback, and properly and professionally submitting one's work to theaters. Throughout the book are essays by well-known theater professionals: playwrights, teachers, dramaturgs, an artistic director, a spoken word performer, and workshopping experts. The book is written in a friendly, nonacademic style, but should be valuable for educators as well as practitioners of theater.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781495088223
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/01/2017
Series:	Applause Acting Series
Pages:	160
Sales rank:	945,101
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

George Sapio is on award-winning playwright, director, producer, dramaturg, actor, and educator. He is the founder/artistic director of the Ithaca Fringe Festival and works with several theatre troupes. He produces and hosts Onstage/Offstage, a radio show and podcast featuring interviews with theatre professionals. Sapio earned an MFA in playwriting at Goddard College. His work can be found listed at newplayexchange.org as well as on his website, gsapia.com. He lives in Ithaca, New York.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction: Congratulations! ix

Part 1 Preparation

1 Why This Book Can Help You 3

Expert: Melissa Hillman, "The Artistic Director's Role"

2 Play Structure-A Primer 13

3 Analyzing Your Script 23

Part 2 Workshop Fundamentals

4 Workshop Logistics 101 37

Expert: James Panowski, "Even Award-Winning Plays Can Be Improved!"

5 Workshop Logistics 201 49

Expert: Allen Clark, "Writing Collaboration as Workshop"

6 Who Owns This Script? 61

Expert: Gary Garrison, "Protecting Playwrights' Rights within Partnerships"

7 For Directors and Dramaturgs 75

Expert: Jayne Wenger, "A Dramaturges Notes from the Field"

8 Public Readings, Audiences, and Zombies 91

Part 3 After Workshopping

9 This Is a Business, Too (Sorry) 105

10 Where to Send Your Work 117

Expert: Aoise Stratford, "Being a Professional Playwright" 117

11 The First Production 131

Expert: Donna Hoke, "Workshopping One-on-One"

Appendix A Recommended Resources 141

Appendix B The Experts 143