An insightful book on playwriting...

There's a wonderful and rather unique little book that's been floating around for a number of years now that every writer should take a look at.  It's called Playwrights Teach Playwriting, edited and compiled by Joan Harrington and Crystal Brian.  It includes insightful essays by ten contemporary American playwrights including Chris Durang, Maria Irene Fornes, Tina Howe, Mead Hunter, David Henry Hwang, Tony Kushner, Romulus Linney, Donald Margulies, Marsha Norman, Jose Rivera, and Mac Wellman.  Quite a line up.

And don't let the title fool you.  Certainly, each of these successful writers talks at length about how they teach the art and craft of playwriting.  But what is really special about the book is that in every case, as they explain how they approach teaching the subject, they at the same time are revealing a great deal about their own writing process and the spirit in which they approach their own work.

Well worth the read.

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I'm the Program Director of the low-residency MFA in Writing for Stage and Screen being offered by the New Hampshire Institute of Art.  Our next residency runs January 3-11, 2016 and we are now considering applications for starting the program in January.  I'm also a playwright and screenwriter, producing partner in my production company Either/Or Films (The Sensation of Sight and Only Daughter), and a professional script consultant.