Playwriting: The Structure of Action

by Sam Smiley

Book Overview

A classic guide to dramatic writing now revised and expanded for a new generation of playwrights and screenwriters

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0136845304
• ISBN13: 9780136845300
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A Dilemma, or is it a Polemic, or a Symbol of Something Else?

Potential Playwright Who is Really Too Old For This: Professor Smiley, why is the nattily-dressed, yet somehow nervous-seeming, character on the cover of your book lacking a head, while his shadow appears to have one? Professor Smiley: (beatifically) Hello, Prentice-Hall? Connect me to your graphic design division, please. Thanks!

a classic

I've been hoping for a reprint of this for years. It is one of the wisest books about play construction I know. I use it extensively in my Playscript Analysis class. The Aristotle-based approach to understanding play structure leads readers beyond the shallow "how to" approach of most books about playwriting and leads them to a deeper understanding of the essential nature of dramatic art. This book will still be read when the flavor-of-the-month how-to-write-a-screenplay-in-one-weekend books are all forgotten. The extensive examples from classics of dramatic literature illustrate the author's points. An essential part of any theatre practitioner's library.