New Playwriting Strategies: A Language-Based Approach to Playwriting

New Playwriting Strategies offers a fresh and dynamic approach to playwriting that will be welcomed by teachers and aspiring playwrights alike. Drawing upon the innovative work of the Language Playwrights (including Len Jenkin, Mac Wellman, and Eric Overmyer) and the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin, Paul Castagno questions many assumptions and "givens" about playwriting and offers provocative and rewarding new models for narrative, dialogue, and character. His techniques and exercises give playwrights the license to experiment with language and to find imaginative solutions to complex dramatic problems outside realist conventions. This volume is sure to become an essential text for the modern student of playwriting.

Paul C. Castagno is Director of the School of Theater at Ohio University, Athens.