Playwriting Book Review

The Playwright's Guidebook by Stuart Spencer

Stuart Spencer teaches at Sarah Lawrence College. A brief biography of Spencer and a listing of classes he currently teaches (with synopsis) are available here:

http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/theatre/faculty.php

A list of his plays (many available as a free .pdf download) are available here:

http://www.stuartsspencer.com/plays.html

Spencer also offers private consultation over the phone for playwrights of all levels of experience here:

http://www.stuartsspencer.com/consultation.html

This book is organized into four main parts: Structure, Creative Process, Problems, and Advice. A fifth part is an appendix which includes some recommended plays, images, and additional exercises. The book begins with a description of the "wright " part of playwright. This sets the tone of the book in the sense that the author views playwriting as work: hard work. Yet, he says, the concepts are so simple.

The general structure of the book is a chapter describing a concept (many Aristotelian) followed by a series of exercises to be performed by the reader in order to practice and perfect an understanding of that particular skill for eventual use in a large work. Spencer is very interested in structure and spends large portion of the book proving why structure is important followed by teaching how that structure is understood and utilized.

Spencer also advocates reading plays as a central component honing the abilities to be able to write for the theatre effectively. The book is thorough, clear, and an entire course could easily be modeled from its structure and exercises.