Writing for Stage and Screen
Creating a Perception Shift in the Audience
Published on 13. July 2023
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-1-350-33827-2 (ISBN)
Description
" Reading and digesting the lessons in this book can be of greater value to an aspiring dramatist than years in an MFA program. Whether you are writing for the stage, screen or audio, this book is an invaluable teacher and guide to have by your side throughout the development and revision process."
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
"This book does what no other playwriting book in my experience has done, it offers a new way of seeing and conceiving how theatre makes meaning and carries emotional impact in performance."
Suzan Zeder, Professor Emerita and former Head Of Playwriting at University of Texas at Austin, USA
Combining a step-by-step analysis of the technique of writing for stage and screen with how the mystery, poetry, and emotional momentum is achieved for the audience, Sherry Kramer offers an empowering, original guide for emerging and established writers.
In this structured look at the way audience members progress through a work in real time, Sherry Kramer uses plain-spoken vocabulary to help you discover how to make work that will mean more to your audiences. By using examples drawn from plays, film, and streaming series, ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire to Fleabag to Pirates of the Caribbean, this study makes its concepts accessible to a wide range of artists who work in timebound art. The book also features multiple exercises, developed with MFA writers in The Iowa Playwrights Workshop and The Michener Center for Writers, where Kramer taught for the past 25 years, which provide entrance points to help you consider and create your work.
Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig
"This book does what no other playwriting book in my experience has done, it offers a new way of seeing and conceiving how theatre makes meaning and carries emotional impact in performance."
Suzan Zeder, Professor Emerita and former Head Of Playwriting at University of Texas at Austin, USA
Combining a step-by-step analysis of the technique of writing for stage and screen with how the mystery, poetry, and emotional momentum is achieved for the audience, Sherry Kramer offers an empowering, original guide for emerging and established writers.
In this structured look at the way audience members progress through a work in real time, Sherry Kramer uses plain-spoken vocabulary to help you discover how to make work that will mean more to your audiences. By using examples drawn from plays, film, and streaming series, ranging from A Streetcar Named Desire to Fleabag to Pirates of the Caribbean, this study makes its concepts accessible to a wide range of artists who work in timebound art. The book also features multiple exercises, developed with MFA writers in The Iowa Playwrights Workshop and The Michener Center for Writers, where Kramer taught for the past 25 years, which provide entrance points to help you consider and create your work.
Reviews / Votes
It's hard for me to think of anyone who has shaped the way I think about playwriting more than Sherry Kramer. While most of my education as a playwright was awash in silly rules surrounding plot mechanics, Sherry showed me how plays are organized in more meaningful and fundamental ways. While others taught me the structure of playwriting, she taught me the poetry of it. * Samuel D. Hunter, Playwright and 2014 MacArthur Fellow * I have been waiting a decade for this book. Not since Lajos Egri's classic The Art of Dramatic Writing have I been so excited and inspired by and grateful for the ideas contained within a text on dramatic writing. Reading and digesting the lessons in this book can be of greater value to an aspiring dramatist than years in an MFA program. Whether you are writing for the stage, screen, or audio, this book is an invaluable teacher and guide to have by your side throughout the development and revision process. * Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, Playwright and Former Head of Playwriting, UC Santa Barbara, USA * Sherry Kramer is a brilliant and uncommon mind, someone who mixes a keen understanding of narrative structure and mechanics with a reverence for theatrical magic. I will never forget the first time I heard her talk about the DNA of plays, how they code themselves line by line, how they reveal to an audience how to understand them-and, to their writer, how to be faithful to their core questions. As a former student, I'm still using the many tools she gave me, both when writing a new draft or when in the throes of rewrites. Sherry is an artist and a teacher, and her ability to harness pedagogy to illuminate instinct is one of her many unusual gifts. * Jen Silverman, Playwright, Author of We Play Ourselves and The Island Dwellers * Sherry Kramer is the best kind of playwriting guide-generous, ingenious, and wise. She is an audience's best friend and the fairy godmother of storytelling. Without Sherry's big ideas on structure, magic, and perception shift, I'd be lost as a writer and teacher. I plagiarize her daily. Most books on the playwriting craft are derivative and oddly traditional-Sherry's guide is both the tornado and yellow brick road. You will never go back to thinking about drama the same way again. * Austin Bunn, Screenwriter, playwright, co-author of A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond, and Associate Professor at Cornell University, USA * Sherry Kramer has a singular, comprehensive approach to teaching playwriting. This book is both a toolbox and divining rod, giving playwrights tools and strategies to make their own unique theater magic. For years, students have raved about Sherry as a mentor and a teacher, sharing notes on her classes as though it was precious contraband. Having access to this 'Kramer Bible' is a major moment for playwrights, teachers and theater-lovers alike. * Lisa D'Amour, playwright, interdisciplinary artist, and Co-Artistic Director, PearlDamour * This book does what no other playwriting book in my experience has done, it offers a new way of seeing and conceiving how theatre makes meaning and carries emotional impact in performance. * Suzan Zeder, Professor Emerita and former Head of Playwriting at University of Texas at Austin, USA *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Illustrations
4 bw illus
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
531 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-33827-2 (9781350338272)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Sherry Kramer is a playwright who has won numerous awards for her work and has written more than thirty plays, including David's RedHaired Death, When Something Wonderful Ends and The Wall of Water. She teaches playwriting at Bennington College, USA, and taught regularly in the MFA programs of The Michener Center for Writers UT Austin, TX, and the Iowa Playwrights' Workshop, where she was previously head of the workshop. She was the first national member of New Dramatists.
Content
List of Illustrations
1. Works of Art Teach Us How to Read Them
First We Must Find a Way to See The World in Front of Us
There is an Old Saying in the Theatre: The First 20 Minutes Are Free
A Closer Look at The First 20 Minutes
Some Advice About the First 20 Minutes
Tone
There is Always a Clock
EXERCISE: Spend Some Time With Structured Time
Attention
2. The Perception Shift
Insight: The Eureka Moment
Attention and Insight
The Power of a Moment's Newness
How Newness Drives Insight
A Joke is a Small Play
The Perception Shift in Three Plays: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Streetcar Named Desire
EXERCISE: Experience a Small Perception Shift in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Hiding in Plain Sight
3. Theatre Is a Rhyme For Life
Certainty, Meaning, and Maybe
Dramatic Doubleness
The Bone Violin
The Bone Violin: A Fugue for Five Actors
EXERCISE: Track Doubling in The Bone Violin
Doubleness is Our Most Elegant Tool
The Three Surfaces of Doubleness in Three Plays : A Streetcar Named Desire, Betrayal, The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Systems
EXERCISE: Pleats
Systems and Theme
EXERCISE: Tracking Systems In A Streetcar Named Desire
The Ends of Plays Tend to Mirror Their Beginnings
Empathy and Doubleness
4. Story and Plot
Sequence = Meaning
EXERCISE: Order Makes Meaning
Breadcrumbs
Story Is Another Word for Time
How the Plot Organizes Itself Outside of Story
Futurity
The Double Track of Time (Non-linear plays)
Plot and Story are Two Different Things
Anti-Climax
EXERCISE: How Your Plot Uses Story
Conveniences
To Sum Up Story and Plot
So Here We are, Ready to Talk About the Enchantment That Is Story
Vertical and Horizontal
Vertical vs. Horizontal
EXERCISE: Draw Two Sets
5. Choice and Consequence
Why Choice Matters to the Audience
The God Who Loves You - Carl Dennis
EXERCISE: Tracking Character Desire
The And Then, The So Then, and The What If
EXERCISE: The And Then, The So Then
Repeatability
WRITING EXERCISE: A Five Minute Scene About Choice
Choice vs. Reveal
WRITING EXERCISE: Adapt A Family Story
Alternative History
WRITING EXERCISE: An Alternative History Play
Choice and Tragedy
A Tragedy is like Going Down a River
There are Two Forks of the River
The Sun has to Shine
Breaking Bad
Right vs. Right
Tragedy is the Art Form of Change
Tragedy is Made Out of Hope
Hope as Strategy
WRITING EXERCISE: The Nodes
Tragedy is a Clash of Values
What is it Worth? vs. What does it Mean?
In-Itself Value and the Evolution of the Art Form
Tragedy Is Not Simply Sad
Why Do We Take Pleasure in Tragedy
Characters Don't Change No Matter How Much They Want To. No Matter How Much We Hope They Will.
In Comedy, People Change
It's a Form of Magic
The Magic of Changing Without Changing
EXERCISE: Find Comedies Where People Change
But it Feels Like Someone Changes in Plays That Aren't Comedies.
Are You Sure Someone Doesn't Change?
But If People Can't Change How Do We Change?
WRITING EXERCISE: Write Three Monologues About the Same Choice from Three Different Character's Point of View
6. In Retrospect, Inevitable
In Retrospect Inevitable Outcomes
Not In Retrospect Inevitable Outcomes
EXERCISE: Write the Last Moment of Your Play As a Sonnet
Pointers
Pointers are Lies that Tell the Truth
The Attributes of Pointers: Systems and Pointers, Forwards and Pointers
How Pointers Announce Themselves
How to Write Pointers On Purpose
The Atomic Throw Is an Uncertain Kitchen
Foreshadowing and Misdirection
Titles
EXERCISE: Finding Your Title
Running Gags
A Play Tells the Truth, But It Enjoys Using a Lie To Tell It
EXERCISE: Lies
Spoilers
EXERCISE: Identifying Pointers
EXERCISE: Identify Pointers In Your Own Play
7. Convergence
It's Never a Single Moment
EXERCISE: The End and The Beginning
Is Saying That Convergence is Everywhere in A Great Work of Timebound Art The Same Thing as Saying That a Great Work of Timebound Art is All Convergence?
To Be Human Is To Confuse a Satisfying Story With a Meaningful One
EXERCISE: Noticing Perception Shifts
The Turn
The Prestige
Reveal and Choice
Enlarging the Idea of Dramatic Event
EXERCISE: The Dramatic Future
The Difference Between What Happens on Stage and What Happens in the Audience
EXERCISE: The Last 45 Seconds Again. Endings as Different Genres
Why a Perception Shift Makes Things Weightless
How Coincidence is a Form of Rhyme
Open Endings
Mysteries are Almost All Writers' Favorite Genre for a Reason
A Small Play To Fill Us With Wonder
Structure is Just What Happens in the End
EXERCISE: Adapt the Climax/Convergence of a Song
Hope is at the Heart of Everything in the Theatre
EXERCISE: Tracking Hope
Once Again: The Duck Rabbit
Index
1. Works of Art Teach Us How to Read Them
First We Must Find a Way to See The World in Front of Us
There is an Old Saying in the Theatre: The First 20 Minutes Are Free
A Closer Look at The First 20 Minutes
Some Advice About the First 20 Minutes
Tone
There is Always a Clock
EXERCISE: Spend Some Time With Structured Time
Attention
2. The Perception Shift
Insight: The Eureka Moment
Attention and Insight
The Power of a Moment's Newness
How Newness Drives Insight
A Joke is a Small Play
The Perception Shift in Three Plays: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Beauty Queen of Leenane, A Streetcar Named Desire
EXERCISE: Experience a Small Perception Shift in the Comfort of Your Own Home
Hiding in Plain Sight
3. Theatre Is a Rhyme For Life
Certainty, Meaning, and Maybe
Dramatic Doubleness
The Bone Violin
The Bone Violin: A Fugue for Five Actors
EXERCISE: Track Doubling in The Bone Violin
Doubleness is Our Most Elegant Tool
The Three Surfaces of Doubleness in Three Plays : A Streetcar Named Desire, Betrayal, The Beauty Queen of Leenane
Systems
EXERCISE: Pleats
Systems and Theme
EXERCISE: Tracking Systems In A Streetcar Named Desire
The Ends of Plays Tend to Mirror Their Beginnings
Empathy and Doubleness
4. Story and Plot
Sequence = Meaning
EXERCISE: Order Makes Meaning
Breadcrumbs
Story Is Another Word for Time
How the Plot Organizes Itself Outside of Story
Futurity
The Double Track of Time (Non-linear plays)
Plot and Story are Two Different Things
Anti-Climax
EXERCISE: How Your Plot Uses Story
Conveniences
To Sum Up Story and Plot
So Here We are, Ready to Talk About the Enchantment That Is Story
Vertical and Horizontal
Vertical vs. Horizontal
EXERCISE: Draw Two Sets
5. Choice and Consequence
Why Choice Matters to the Audience
The God Who Loves You - Carl Dennis
EXERCISE: Tracking Character Desire
The And Then, The So Then, and The What If
EXERCISE: The And Then, The So Then
Repeatability
WRITING EXERCISE: A Five Minute Scene About Choice
Choice vs. Reveal
WRITING EXERCISE: Adapt A Family Story
Alternative History
WRITING EXERCISE: An Alternative History Play
Choice and Tragedy
A Tragedy is like Going Down a River
There are Two Forks of the River
The Sun has to Shine
Breaking Bad
Right vs. Right
Tragedy is the Art Form of Change
Tragedy is Made Out of Hope
Hope as Strategy
WRITING EXERCISE: The Nodes
Tragedy is a Clash of Values
What is it Worth? vs. What does it Mean?
In-Itself Value and the Evolution of the Art Form
Tragedy Is Not Simply Sad
Why Do We Take Pleasure in Tragedy
Characters Don't Change No Matter How Much They Want To. No Matter How Much We Hope They Will.
In Comedy, People Change
It's a Form of Magic
The Magic of Changing Without Changing
EXERCISE: Find Comedies Where People Change
But it Feels Like Someone Changes in Plays That Aren't Comedies.
Are You Sure Someone Doesn't Change?
But If People Can't Change How Do We Change?
WRITING EXERCISE: Write Three Monologues About the Same Choice from Three Different Character's Point of View
6. In Retrospect, Inevitable
In Retrospect Inevitable Outcomes
Not In Retrospect Inevitable Outcomes
EXERCISE: Write the Last Moment of Your Play As a Sonnet
Pointers
Pointers are Lies that Tell the Truth
The Attributes of Pointers: Systems and Pointers, Forwards and Pointers
How Pointers Announce Themselves
How to Write Pointers On Purpose
The Atomic Throw Is an Uncertain Kitchen
Foreshadowing and Misdirection
Titles
EXERCISE: Finding Your Title
Running Gags
A Play Tells the Truth, But It Enjoys Using a Lie To Tell It
EXERCISE: Lies
Spoilers
EXERCISE: Identifying Pointers
EXERCISE: Identify Pointers In Your Own Play
7. Convergence
It's Never a Single Moment
EXERCISE: The End and The Beginning
Is Saying That Convergence is Everywhere in A Great Work of Timebound Art The Same Thing as Saying That a Great Work of Timebound Art is All Convergence?
To Be Human Is To Confuse a Satisfying Story With a Meaningful One
EXERCISE: Noticing Perception Shifts
The Turn
The Prestige
Reveal and Choice
Enlarging the Idea of Dramatic Event
EXERCISE: The Dramatic Future
The Difference Between What Happens on Stage and What Happens in the Audience
EXERCISE: The Last 45 Seconds Again. Endings as Different Genres
Why a Perception Shift Makes Things Weightless
How Coincidence is a Form of Rhyme
Open Endings
Mysteries are Almost All Writers' Favorite Genre for a Reason
A Small Play To Fill Us With Wonder
Structure is Just What Happens in the End
EXERCISE: Adapt the Climax/Convergence of a Song
Hope is at the Heart of Everything in the Theatre
EXERCISE: Tracking Hope
Once Again: The Duck Rabbit
Index