Playwriting Articles for Drama Teachers

Episode 16: Control There is a reason that Lindsay writes for her own company and has never had any desire to go to Hollywood and become a screenwriter. It’s all about control.

All of these pictures come from the Japan pavilion at Epcot in Disney World. The store at the pavilion is an experience, based on the Mitsukoshi Department Store. I adore wandering through and...

When I was in San Diego I found a lot of interesting plant life and a number of objects that just struck me as great inspiration for writing. So let’s get to it. Each picture contains a non-human...

Episode 11: How do I get published? It’s the question that every writer asks and yet it’s the wrong question for a playwright to ask. It’s also the worst question a beginning writer can ask an...

““One of the most consistent challenges of being a practising dramaturg is convincing other artists of the usefulness of my being in the room.” Dramaturgy in Action, Beccy Smith” It is a funny word...

I came across this most vivid sentence this week: ““They want you to fail so they won’t be alone.”” Who are they? Doesn’t matter. It’s anyone who beats you down. It’s anyone who sneers at you....

Naming characters. It’s something that I take very seriously as a playwright. Some might say a little too seriously, as I spend an hour on a baby name website instead of actually, you know,...

I read an article about the 25 most used passwords. I looked at the title and had one of those mac truck moments – there’s something there. Something. What? A play? Who knows. Most definitely an...

I was teaching at a private school last week during their playwriting unit. One of their pre-writing exercises was to create an “Inspiration File” the point of which was to find, create, give...

If you’re in the middle of a draft and you’re stuck. If you want to work on character development. If you want to work on the relationship between two characters. Time to sit right down and write...

We all write every day. It’s impossible to avoid: there are emails, texts, project proposals, letters, reports. Pen to paper, keyboard to computer – every individual knows how to write. There is a...

The most interesting characters come alive in the smallest details: a favourite food, a favourite type of music, a fear of spiders, an allergy to plums, a scar from a fall at two years of age, a...