21T.150
Playwriting Fundamentals
Introduces the craft of writing for the theater, with special attention to the basics of dramatic structure. Through weekly assignments and in-class exercises, students explore character, conflict, language and plasticity in scenes and short plays. In workshop format, students present individual work for feedback and heavily revise their work based on that response. Readings include a variety of plays.
Spring 2005 · Playwriting I
Topics
- Playwrights are Storytellers
- The Power of the Unspoken Word
- Actions Speak Louder than Words
- The Challenge of Exposition and How to Create High- and Low-Context Dialogue
- Disrupted Ritual
- Thinking about Plot
- Thinking about Sound
- Dialogue is Action
- Composition: Adding Elements
- Obstacle + Action = Great Theater
- Reading and Workshopping Final Projects
Readings
- WeEK #: 1 · TOPICS: Playwrights are Storytellers · READINGS: Ives, David. “Sure Thing.” In All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1994. ISBN: 9780679759287.
- Alford, Henry. “Shouts and Murmers: Unspoken O’Neill.” The New Yorker , December 1998, 68-69.
- Raffo, Heather. “Iraq Through the Eyes of its Women.” American Theatre , April 2005, 20-22 and 70-71.
- Epstein, Leslie. The Yellow Bus . In Boston Theatre Marathon of Ten-Minute Plays, Volume 1. Quincy, MA: Baker’s Plays, 2000. ISBN: 087440-134-8
- Rivera, Jose. “36 Assumptions about Writing Plays.” American Theatre , February 2003.
- ———. “The Winged Man.” from Plays for Actresses . Edited by Eric Lane and Nina Shengold. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1997. ISBN: 9780679772811.
- MacFarquhar, Larissa. “Passion Plays: The making of Edward Albee.” The New Yorker , April 4, 2005, 68-77.
- WeEK #: 5 · TOPICS: Disrupted Ritual · READINGS: Schisgal, Murray. “Confessions: A Playwright Confesses.” The Dramatist, Spring 2006, 30-33.
- Marguilies, Donald. “Last Tuesday.” American Theatre . July-August 2003, 42-46.
- Lahr, John. “After Angels: Tony Kushner’s Promethean Itch.” The New Yorker , January 3, 2005, 42-52.
- Rudnick, Paul. “Paul Rudnick’s Random Rules for Comedy.” The Dramatist, Spring 2006, 6-7.
- Ives, David. “Why I Shouldn’t Write Plays.” New York Times , August 24, 1997.
- Wright, Nicholas. Vincent in Brixton . London, UK: Nick Hern Books, 2002. ISBN: 9780573629563.
- WeEK #: 7 · TOPICS: Thinking about Sound · READINGS: Wren, Celia. “Saints, Sin, and Erik Ehn.” American Theatre , May-June 2004, 19-22 and 65.
- Walker, George F. “Introduction and Beyond Mozambique.” In Shared Anxiety: Selected Plays . Toronto, Canada: Coach House Press, 2002, preface. ISBN: 9780889104723.
- WeEK #: 8 · TOPICS: Dialogue is Action · READINGS: Mamet, David. Glengarry Glen Ross . New York, NY: Grove Press, 1994. ISBN: 9780802130914.
- Croyden, Margaret. “The African Connection.” American Theatre , April 2005, 30-32 and 73.
- Ives, David. “Words, Words, Words.” In All in the Timing: Fourteen Plays . New York, NY: Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 22-30. ISBN: 9780679759287.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 21W.754[J] Prereq: None U (Fall) 3-0-9 units. HASS-A
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2005
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.