Overview

While successful plays tend to share certain storytelling elements, there is no single blueprint for how a play should be constructed. Instead, seasoned playwrights know how to select the right elements for their needs and organize them in a structure that best supports their particular story. Through his workshops and book The Dramatic Writer’s Companion, Will Dunne has helped thousands of writers develop successful scripts. Now, in The Architecture of Story, he helps writers master the building blocks of dramatic storytelling by analyzing a trio of award-winning contemporary American plays: Doubt: A Parable by John Patrick Shanley, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks, and The Clean House by Sarah Ruhl. Dismantling the stories and examining key components from a technical perspective enables writers to approach their own work with an informed understanding of dramatic architecture. Each self-contained chapter focuses on one storytelling component, ranging from “Title” and “Main Event” to “Emotional Environment” and “Crisis Decision.”  Dunne explores each component in detail, demonstrating how it has been successfully handled in each play and comparing and contrasting techniques.  The chapters conclude with questions to help writers evaluate and improve their own scripts. The result is a nonlinear reference guide that lets writers work at their own pace and choose the topics that interest them as they develop new scripts. This flexible, interactive structure is designed to meet the needs of writers at all stages of writing and at all levels of experience.

Full Product Details

9780226181912

Table of Contents

Reviews

Dunne offers the tools playwrights need to create, and improve, what they write. As intuitive an art form as playwriting often is, a writer can find herself frustrated as she attempts to identify clearly what she feels is wrong but cannot necessarily pin down and solve. Dunne s components and questions will help soothe that frustration, illuminate the problem, and open up potential solutions for the playwright to use. --Megan Monaghan Rivas, School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University

The genius of The Architecture of Story is the way in which Dunne manages to embrace both the chaos and the craft of playwriting. His bold, unabashedly nonlinear approach and graceful co-mingling of intellect and impulse, historical perspective and modern reinvention, examination and inquiry, guide us ever closer to a theatrical world that is as singular and powerful as the writer s own voice. This is a must-have for playwrights. --Jeni Mahoney, artistic director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Dunne offers the tools playwrights need to create, and improve, what they write. As intuitive an art form as playwriting often is, a writer can find herself frustrated as she attempts to identify clearly what she feels is wrong but cannot necessarily pin down and solve. Dunne s components and questions will help soothe that frustration, illuminate the problem, and open up potential solutions for the playwright to use. --Megan Monaghan Rivas, School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University Dunne offers the tools playwrights need to create, and improve, what they write. As intuitive an art form as playwriting often is, a writer can find herself frustrated as she attempts to identify clearly what she feels is wrong but cannot necessarily pin down and solve. Dunne's components and questions will help soothe that frustration, illuminate the problem, and open up potential solutions for the playwright to use. --Megan Monaghan Rivas, School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University Together with The Dramatic Writer's Companion, Dunne's The Architecture of Story is part of the most thorough course in playwriting available in print, one that is both an in-depth study in character and its relation to dramatic form, and a practical dramaturgical resource for dramatists in search of the best form for their work. --Art Borreca, head of Dramaturgy Program and co-head of Playwrights Workshop, the University of Iowa The genius of The Architecture of Story is the way in which Dunne manages to embrace both the chaos and the craft of playwriting. His bold, unabashedly nonlinear approach and graceful co-mingling of intellect and impulse, historical perspective and modern reinvention, examination and inquiry, guide us ever closer to a theatrical world that is as singular and powerful as the writer's own voice. This is a must-have for playwrights. --Jeni Mahoney, artistic director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference The genius of The Architecture of Story is the way in which Dunne manages to embrace both the chaos and the craft of playwriting. His bold, unabashedly nonlinear approach and graceful co-mingling of intellect and impulse, historical perspective and modern reinvention, examination and inquiry, guide us ever closer to a theatrical world that is as singular and powerful as the writer s own voice. This is a must-have for playwrights. --Jeni Mahoney, artistic director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference Together with The Dramatic Writer s Companion, Dunne s The Architecture of Storyis part of the most thorough course in playwriting available in print, one that is both an in-depth study in character and its relation to dramatic form, and a practical dramaturgical resource for dramatists in search of the best form for their work. --Art Borreca, head of Dramaturgy Program and co-head of Playwrights Workshop, the University of Iowa Together with The Dramatic Writer s Companion, Dunne s The Architecture of Story is part of the most thorough course in playwriting available in print, one that is both an in-depth study in character and its relation to dramatic form, and a practical dramaturgical resource for dramatists in search of the best form for their work. --Art Borreca, head of Dramaturgy Program and co-head of Playwrights Workshop, the University of Iowa

The genius of <i>The Architecture of Story </i>is the way in which Dunne manages to embrace both the chaos and the craft of playwriting. His bold, unabashedly nonlinear approach and graceful co-mingling of intellect and impulse, historical perspective and modern reinvention, examination and inquiry, guide us ever closer to a theatrical world that is as singular and powerful as the writer s own voice. This is a must-have for playwrights. --Jeni Mahoney, artistic director of Seven Devils Playwrights Conference

Author Information

Will Dunne is currently a resident playwright at Chicago Dramatists, where he develops plays and teaches workshops. He also has led over fifteen hundred workshops through his San Francisco program, served as a dramaturg at the O'Neill, and twice attended the Australian National Playwrights Conference as guest instructor. His plays, which include How I Became an Interesting Person and Hotel Desperado, have been presented in Russia, Australia, and Croatia as well as in the US.

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