Playwrights on Playwriting: From Ibsen to Ionesco

by Toby Cole

Overview

For anyone interested in drama, Playwrights on Playwriting: From Ibsen to Ionesco offers revealing and astute insights on modern theater and the creation of plays. The book gathers the opinions and theories of the greatest names in the past 200 years of drama, among them Anton Chekhov, George Bernard Shaw, Federico Garcia Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Bertolt Brecht, Tenessee Williams, Sean O'Casey, and Arthur Miller, to name a few. In the first part of the book, "Credos and Concepts," the playwrights offer their differing philosophies on the dynamics of theatrical performance and the changes in drama since Aristotle. In the second part, "Creations," the same dramatists look at specific plays of their own, commenting on their intended goals and the works' overall success. A unique and enlightening collection, Playwrights on Playwriting is an essential resource for the enthusiast of theater.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780815411413
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	04/03/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.57(w) x 8.69(h) x 0.97(d)

About the Author

Toby Cole is the editor of Actors on Acting and Directors on Directing. She lives in Berkeley, California.

Table of Contents

	Preface	v
	Introduction	xi
Part 1	Credos and Concepts
	The Task of the Poet	3
	Naturalism on the Stage	5
	On Modern Drama and Modern Theatre	15
	Advice to Playwrights	23
	The Tragic in Daily Life	30
	Language, Character, and Construction	37
	Some Platitudes Concerning Drama	45
	How to Write a Popular Play	53
	The Authority of the Theatre	58
	Two Laws	62
	Memoranda on Masks	65
	A Short Organum for the Theatre	72
	Some Thoughts on Playwriting	106
	Forgers of Myths	116
	Why Verse?	125
	Problems of the Theatre	131
	Declaration	140
	The Starting Point	145
Part 2	Creations
	A Doll's House	151
	Ghosts	154
	Hedda Gabler	156
	Miss Julie	171
	A Dream Play	182
	Ivanov	184
	Widowers' Houses: A Collaboration	193
	The Playboy of the Western World	201
	The Tinker's Wedding	202
	Six Characters in Search of an Author	204
	Transfiguration	218
	Masses and Man	220
	The Machine-Wreckers	222
	Hoppla, Such Is Life!	223
	Mariana Pineda	228
	The Shoemaker's Prodigious Wife	231
	The Sea Plays	233
	Beyond the Horizon	234
	The Emperor Jones	234
	The Hairy Ape	235
	The Great God Brown	237
	Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel	240
	Cock-A-Doodle Dandy	247
	Murder in the Cathedral	250
	The Family Reunion	254
	The Cocktail Party	257
	Death of a Salesman	261
	Camino Real	277
	The Bald Soprano	282
	The Chairs	284
Appendix	From Hebbel's Journals	285
	Bibliography	289
	Index	295

Editorial Reviews

A well-chosen anthology that has special appeal for the aspiring playwright and others with an interest in the theater.

Booklist

Taking a place with books about theater is this excellent new anthology edited by Toby Cole…. With 27 writers represented, her cast certainly is all-star.

San Francisco Chronicle

Students of the theater…will return again and again to Miss Cole's valuable compendium.

The Christian Science Monitor

A well-chosen anthology that has special appeal for the aspiring playwright and others with an interest in the theater.--Booklist

Taking a place with books about theater is this excellent new anthology edited by Toby Cole.... With 27 writers represented, her cast certainly is all-star.--San Francisco Chronicle

Students of the theater...will return again and again to Miss Cole's valuable compendium.--The Christian Science Monitor

From the Publisher

Taking a place with books about theater is this excellent new anthology edited by Toby Cole…. With 27 writers represented, her cast certainly is all-star.

San Francisco Chronicle

A well-chosen anthology that has special appeal for the aspiring playwright and others with an interest in the theater.

Booklist

Students of the theater…will return again and again to Miss Cole's valuable compendium.

Christian Science Monitor