The Power Of The Playwright's Vision: Blueprints For The Working Writer Download Free (EPUB, PDF)
Every playwright has his or her own vision of life - and seeks to express that vision on stage. Over the past two hundred years, the world's greatest dramatists have been constructing models, or blueprints of their visions, to make sure that what is in their hearts gets put on stage. This book distills that genius and innovation into a practical manual. In a clear and easily understood way, Gordon Farrell makes available the most potent and effective structures ever devised by the world's most important dramatists. Playwrights like Henrik Ibsen, Anton Chekov, George Bernard Shaw, Samuel Beckett, Lillian Hellman, Bertolt Brecht, Jean Paul Sartre, Harold Pinter, and Jean Cocteau all developed powerful new writing tools that empowered them to capture their personal vision of the world on stage. The Power of the Playwright's Vision describes not only what these techniques are, but also how they can be put to use, enabling today's working playwrights to bring the power of their own personal vision to life in the theatre.
Series: Blueprints for the Working Writer
Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Heinemann Drama (September 6, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0325002428
ISBN-13: 978-0325002422
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.3 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #728,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #181 in Books > Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Writing > Play & Scriptwriting #236 in Books > Arts & Photography > Performing Arts > Theater > Playwriting #923 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Performing Arts > Theater
I studied with Gordon Farrell as a graduate student at NYU's Dept. of Dramatic Writing. His lectures on classical drama and dramatic analysis were astounding. I'm not kidding; everyone in the class wrote notes like crazy. We'd never heard anything like it, esp. not applied to stage and screenwriting. Now that I am teaching dramatic writing myself at Austin Community College, I still draw upon what I learned about dramatic structures from Gordon to teach my own classes. His book, The Power of the Playwright's Vision, is the clearest analysis of the structures used in writing drama I have read. Not only is this invaluable knowledge for playwrights, but it also builds a foundation for screenwriting as well. If you think you know everything there is to know about structure, read this book and really get a grasp of it from a new angle. I only wish the book had been longer and gone into Gordon's analysis of classic drama and how to apply that to writing today for the stage and screen. Maybe that will be part II. I hope so. My notes from his classes are too messy to read, so I eagerly await his next book!
I have taken Professor Farrell's classes at NYU. This book distills his class teaching in a readable if sometimes repetitive way and will utimately be useful to more than just practicing playwrights. Anyone studying how plays are made will find his Yale Drama School-influenced method quite informative.Farrell's basic thesis is that playwrights communicate their philosophical visions of the world through their plays. Not exactly ground-breaking. But neither is Aristotle when he says plays must have a beginning, middle and end. Farrel is not entirely artsy, either. If a play fails to capture an audience, he says, it has failed.So, how to go about capturing an audience with your vision? Farrell gives the blueprints of successful plays and dramatic genres and provides commentary on their uses in communicating certain basic ideas like:One person can change the world.One person can't change the world.Only groups of people can change the world.Things change, but for the worse, and people can't stop this deterioration.He talks a lot of isms (Naturalism, Realism, Expressionism...) but keeps them extremely distinct, one of the advantages of how he teaches his classes. He also keeps you excited and engaged, even if it requires prose that resembles the patter of an infomercial.For those who can't make it to NYU or Yale to study drama, this is a highly-readable version of the basic curriculum and a good companion to play anthologies like THEATRE ALIVE! by Norman A. Bert. Some will take exception to Farrell's simplifications and omissions. In my opinion, what THE POWER OF THE PLAYWRIGHT'S VISION loses in simplification, it makes up for in inspiration.
As a university theatre instructor, I feel that Gordon Farrell's "The Power of the Playwright's Vision: Blueprints for the Working Writer" is highly valuable not only students of playwrighting, but also to students who are just beginning to study dramatic literature. Farrell offers various tools by which the student can intelligently approach plays written in a varriety of modern styles. Among the playwriting styles that Farrell renders accessible to even the most inexperienced student are surrealism and expressionism. Farrell also foregrounds some of the differences between realism and naturalism--a muddy point that baffles many students. The historical background sections that are stratigically placed AFTER the description of each playwriting style allows the student to perceive the manner in which social developments have influenced the art of playwriting. As a text that connects artistic style with history, Farrell's book offers students the knowledge and terminology necessaery to begin a meaningful discussion about drama in the modern era. University instructors should consider assigning "The Power of the Playwright's Vision" in their Introduction to Theatre courses, as well as their playwwriting courses.
As a university theatre instructor, I feel that Gordon Farrell's "The Power of the Playwright's Vision: Blueprints for the Working Writer" is highly valuable not only students of playwriting, but also to students who are just beginning to study dramatic literature. Farrell offers various tools by which the student can intelligently approach plays written in a variety of modern styles. Among the playwriting styles that Farrell renders accessible to even the most inexperienced student are surrealism and expressionism. Farrell also illuminates some of the differences between realism and naturalism--a muddy point that baffles many students. The historical background sections that are strategically placed AFTER the description of each playwriting style allows the student to perceive the manner in which social developments have influenced the art of playwriting. As a text that connects artistic style with history, Farrell's book offers students the knowledge and terminology necessary to begin a meaningful discussion about drama in the modern era. University instructors should consider assigning "The Power of the Playwright's Vision" in their Introduction to Theatre courses, as well as their playwriting courses.
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