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The Secret Life of Plays examines several plays' hidden workings and the trade secrets that govern their writing. Steve Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing to show how plays are more than the sum of their parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism.
Price: $30.95
Pages: 256
Publisher: Theatre Communications Group
Imprint: Nick Hern Books
Publication Date:
17 May 2011
Trim Size: 8.50 X 5.38 in
ISBN: 9781848420007
Format: Paperback
"Steve Waters’ book is like his plays: clear, elegant and stimulating throughout"— David Edgar
"Essential for aspiring playwrights"—Whatsonstage.com
"Thrilling... crammed with good, old-fashioned close reading of a diverse range of plays, which means that although Waters does primarily address those who write for the theatre, he does not forget those who like watching and reading it"—TLS
"Waters analyses what makes plays work on stage, discussing - brilliantly - Hamlet and Woyzeck as examples of structure and characterisation, thereby opening new understandings of drama for everyone"—
Christopher Innes, THES
"Essential for aspiring playwrights"—Whatsonstage.com
"Thrilling... crammed with good, old-fashioned close reading of a diverse range of plays, which means that although Waters does primarily address those who write for the theatre, he does not forget those who like watching and reading it"—TLS
"Waters analyses what makes plays work on stage, discussing - brilliantly - Hamlet and Woyzeck as examples of structure and characterisation, thereby opening new understandings of drama for everyone"—
Christopher Innes, THES
STEVE WATERS is the Convenor of the Playwriting Studies MPhil at Birmingham University. His plays have been staged at the Donmar Warehouse (World Music), Sheffield Crucible (The Unthinkable), Hampstead Theatre (Fast Labour) and, most recently, the Bush Theatre (The Contingency Plan). All are published by NHB. He lives in Cambridge.