The Playwright's Workout: Exercises for the Dramatic Imagination

Bys: Michael Bigelow Dixon and Liz Engelman

Book Overview

This collection of exercises is designed to build creative muscle in students of playwriting and will prove useful as well to working dramatists who want to build their skills while stretching their imaginative powers. Contributed by some of America's foremost playwrights and playwriting teachers, these varied and inventive exercises offer new sources for dramatic inspiration, provide ways to embolden dramatic action, and encourage experimentation with the basic elements of playwriting.The thirty contributors include:Sarah Ruhl,Craig Lucas,Emily Mann,Ellen McLaughlin,Jon Jory,Kia CorthronSteven Dietz.While most playwriting guides introduce students to basic concepts and practices, The Playwright's Workout offers a range of imaginative prompts to the creative act of playwriting.MICHAEL BIGELOW DIXON, as literary manager and dramaturg, has worked with hundreds of playwrights at Actors Theatre of Louisville, South Coast Repertory, and the Guthrie Theater. As a director, he's staged world premieres at the Florida Stage, the Magic Theatre, Commonwealth Theatre Company, Actors Theatre and the Guthrie. He's edited 31 volumes of plays and criticism and currently works as resident director at The Playwright's Center in Minneapolis.LIZ ENGELMAN is a freelance dramaturg living in Minneapolis. She's worked on new plays and projects across the country and internationally. This is her sixth editorial collaboration with Michael Bigelow Dixon and has edited two volumes of monologues for women with Tori Haring-Smith. She's past-President and current Board Chair of Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas, and is co-founder and director of Tofte Lake Center at Norm's Fish Camp, a creative artists retreat in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1575256177
• ISBN13: 9781575256177
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Smith & Kraus
• Length: 166 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.