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The 10 Best Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference Books list have been recommended not only by normal readers but also by experts.
You’ll also find that these are top-ranking books on the US Amazon Best Sellers book list for the Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference category of books.
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Let’s take a look at the list of 10 Best Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference Books.
10 Best Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference Books
Now, let’s dive right into the list of 10 Best Play & Scriptwriting Writing Reference Books, where we’ll provide a quick outline for each book.
1. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the Original West End Production by J.K. Rowling Review Summary
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Parts One and Two: The Official Playscript of the Original West End Production
The official playscript of the original West End production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. It was always difficult being Harry Potter and it isn’t much easier now that he is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband, and father of three school-age children. While Harry grapples with a past that refuses to stay where it belongs, his youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places. The playscript for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was originally released as a ‘special rehearsal edition’ alongside the opening of Jack Thorne’s play in London’s West End in summer 2016. Based on an original story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne, the play opened to rapturous reviews from theatregoers and critics alike, while the official playscript became an immediate global bestseller. This definitive and final playscript updates the ‘special rehearsal edition’ with the conclusive and final dialogue from the play, which has subtly changed since its rehearsals, as well as a conversation piece between director John Tiffany and writer Jack Thorne, who share stories and insights about reading playscripts. This edition also includes useful background information including the Potter family tree and a timeline of events from the Wizarding World prior to the beginning of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
2. Working on a Song: The Lyrics of HADESTOWN by Anaïs Mitchell Review Summary
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Working on a Song: The Lyrics of HADESTOWN
” Working On A Song is one of the best books about lyric writing for the theater I’ve read.” — Lin-Manuel Miranda Anais Mitchell named to TIME’s List of the 100 Most Influential People in the World of 2020 An illuminating book of lyrics and stories from Hadestown –the winner of eight Tony Awards, including Best Musical–from its author, songwriter Anais Mitchell with a foreword by Steve Earle On Broadway, this fresh take on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice has become a modern classic. Heralded as “The best new musical of the season,” by The Wall Street Journal, and “Sumptuous. Gorgeous. As good as it gets,” by The New York Times , the show was a breakout hit, with its poignant social commentary, and spellbinding music and lyrics. In this book, Anais Mitchell takes readers inside her more than decade’s-long process of building the musical from the ground up–detailing her inspiration, breaking down the lyrics, and opening up the process of creation that gave birth to Hadestown. Fans and newcomers alike will love this deeply thoughtful, revealing look at how the songs from “the underground” evolved, and became the songs we sing again and again.
3. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (37 plays, 160 sonnets and 5 Poetry Books With Active Table of Contents) by William Shakespeare Review Summary
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (37 plays, 160 sonnets and 5 Poetry Books With Active Table of Contents)
This collection gathers together the works by William Shakespeare in a single, convenient, high quality, and extremely low priced Kindle volume! The Comedies A Midsummer Night’s Dream All’s Well That Ends Well As You Like It Love’s Labour ‘s Lost Measure for Measure Much Ado About Nothing The Comedy of Errors The Merchant of Venice The Merry Wives of Windsor The Taming of the Shrew The Two Gentlemen of Verona Twelfth Night; or, What you will The Romances Cymbeline Pericles, Prince of Tyre The Tempest The Winter’s Tale The Tragedies King Lear Romeo and Juliet The History of Troilus and Cressida The Life and Death of Julius Caesar The Life of Timon of Athens The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra The Tragedy of Coriolanus The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark The Tragedy of Macbeth The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice Titus Andronicus The Histories The Life and Death of King John The Life and Death of King Richard the Second The Tragedy of King Richard the Third The first part of King Henry the Fourth The second part of King Henry the Fourth The Life of King Henry V The first part of King Henry the Sixth The second part of King Henry the Sixth The third part of King Henry the Sixth The Life of King Henry the Eighth The Poetical Works The Sonnets Sonnets to Sundry Notes of Music A Lover’s Complaint The Rape of Lucrece Venus and Adonis The Phoenix and the Turtle The Passionate Pilgrim
4. The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives by Lajos Egri Review Summary
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The Art Of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives
Learn the basic techniques every successful playwright knows Among the many “how-to” playwriting books that have appeared over the years, there have been few that attempt to analyze the mysteries of play construction. Lajos Egri’s classic, The Art of Dramatic Writing, does just that, with instruction that can be applied equally well to a short story, novel, or screenplay. Examining a play from the inside out, Egri starts with the heart of any drama: its characters. All good dramatic writing hinges on people and their relationships, which serve to move the story forward and give it life, as well as an understanding of human motives — why people act the way that they do. Using examples from everything from William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, Egri shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise — a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behavior — and to develop the dramatic conflict on the basis of that behavior. Using Egri’s ABCs of premise, character, and conflict, The Art of Dramatic Writing is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in writing.
5. For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange Review Summary
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For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf
This revolutionary, award-winning play by a lauded playwright and poet is a fearless portrayal of the experiences of women of color –“extraordinary and wonderful…that anyone can relate to” ( The New York Times ) and continues to move and resonate with readers today more than ever. From its inception in California in 1974 to its highly acclaimed critical success at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater and on Broadway, the Obie Award- winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf has excited, inspired, and transformed audiences all over the country. Passionate and fearless, Shange’s words reveal what it is to be of color and female in the twentieth century. First published in 1975 when it was praised by The New Yorker for “encompassing…every feeling and experience a woman has ever had,” for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be read and performed for generations to come. Here is the complete text, with stage directions, of a groundbreaking dramatic prose poem written in vivid and powerful language that resonates with unusual beauty in its fierce message to the world.
6. The Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better by Will Storr Review Summary
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Science of Storytelling: Why Stories Make Us Human and How to Tell Them Better
The compelling, groundbreaking guide to creative writing that reveals how the brain responds to storytelling Stories shape who we are. They drive us to act out our dreams and ambitions and mold our beliefs. Storytelling is an essential part of what makes us human. So, how do master storytellers compel us? In The Science of Storytelling , award-winning writer and acclaimed teacher of creative writing Will Storr applies dazzling psychological research and cutting-edge neuroscience to our myths and archetypes to show how we can write better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers–and also our brains –create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Will Storr’s superbly chosen examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories. With sections such as “The Dramatic Question,” “Creating a World,” and “Plot, Endings, and Meaning,” as well as a practical, step-by-step appendix dedicated to “The Sacred Flaw Approach,” The Science of Storytelling reveals just what makes stories work, placing it alongside such creative writing classics as John Yorke’s Into the Woods: A Five-Act Journey into Story and Lajos Egri’s The Art of Dramatic Writing. Enlightening and empowering, The Science of Storytelling is destined to become an invaluable resource for writers of all stripes, whether novelist, screenwriter, playwright, or writer of creative or traditional nonfiction.
7. Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays by David Ball Review Summary
Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays
The best-selling script analysis book for thirty-five years Considered an essential text since its publication thirty-five years ago, this guide for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as literary director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use to make their plays stageworthy. The text is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, exposition, imagery, conflict, theatricality, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play. Also included are guides for discovering what the playwright considers a play’ s most important elements, thus permitting interpretation based on the foundation of the play rather than its details. Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as illustration, Ball assures a familiar base for clarifying script-reading techniques as well as exemplifying the kinds of misinterpretation readers can fall prey to by ignoring the craft of the playwright. Of immense utility to those who want to put plays on the stage (actors, directors, designers, production specialists) Backwards & Forwards is also a fine playwriting manual because the structures it describes are the primary tools of the playwright.
8. The Inheritance by Matthew Lopez Review Summary
The Inheritance
Inspired by E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End , and set in New York three decades after the height of the AIDS epidemic, The Inheritance wrestles with what it means to be a gay man today, exploring relationships and connections across age and social class and asking what one generation’s responsibilities may be to the next. Matthew Lopez’s The Inheritance premiered at the Young Vic Theatre, London, in 2018, before transferring to the West End’s Noel Coward Theatre. It premiered on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 2019. This edition includes revisions made for the Broadway production.
9. The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction by Erik Bork Review Summary
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The Idea: The Seven Elements of a Viable Story for Screen, Stage or Fiction
Most screenwriting books tend to focus on story structure, scene writing, navigating the business, and other parts of the craft that come AFTER the initial choice of the central concept for a story. Multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning writer/producer Erik Bork (HBO’s Band of Brothers ) takes a different approach. His experience in the industry and as a screenwriting professor and coach have led him to recognize that it’s the selection of the initial idea that is the most important part of the process — with the most impact on the project’s chance of success. And as Mr. Bork knows from experience, this choice takes a lot more understanding and work to get “right” than it might seem. Most screenwriters and fiction writers have difficulty getting their work read and accepted by agents, editors and producers mainly because their idea for a story presented in a query or pitch doesn’t excite these “gatekeepers” like it would need to, for them to want to engage. And when they do read the whole story, their core reasons for “passing” are usually also about the basic idea (although lack of professional-level execution matters, too). But writers are usually in the dark about this, not realizing that the project they spent months or years on had fundamental flaws on a concept level, in the eyes of the people they most hoped to impress with it. But even the best fiction writing books and screenwriting experts tend to move quickly past the crucial step of choosing a viable idea, to get to the specific plotting and composition of it, because there is so much to master in those later parts of the process — which feel a lot more like “writing” than developing and mulling over potential story concepts. Professionals, though, tend to understand the primacy of “the idea,” and learn that there are certain key elements in story or series premises that really work, and which are worth investing time and energy in. And that’s what The Idea focuses on — laying out what those specific elements are, and how to master them. While its concepts originate from the author’s screenwriting experiences, they apply equally to commercial fiction writing, playwriting and other forms of “story” — because the focus is on what makes an underlying concept compelling enough to appeal to a substantial audience or readership. The “Seven Elements of a Viable Story” in The Idea form an acronym for the word PROBLEM, since every story is really about one, at its core. Each chapter focuses on one of these seven deceptively simple-looking aspects of a strong story, which are anything but easy to master. Mr. Bork highlights his own struggles as a writer, and his arrival at an understanding of how each of these elements works — and how to know if one’s idea really succeeds at each of them. A special section devoted to television writing (and its unique attributes) ends each chapter. Whatever your education and background in writing or story, this book and its unique focus contributes foundationally useful information not covered elsewhere — which may be the missing piece that leads to greater results, both on the page and in the marketplace.
10. Mom and Son : Mom's Love and Game : mother and son: mom son : mother son by Batista Philippe Review Summary
Mom and Son : Mom's Love and Game : mother and son: mom son : mother son
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