Playwriting in Process: Thinking and Working Theatrically, Second Edition (review)

Michael Wright begins the second edition of his playwriting primer by explaining how Playwriting in Process is really not a primer at all: his intention, as he states in the introduction, is to provide students and playwrights with "more of a workshop sensibility" (xiii) through a series of exercises that will enable them to create what is essentially a hand-selected playwriting curriculum tailored to their particular place in the writing process, rather than by providing another playwriting text that presumes to have all the answers. Wright teaches screenwriting and playwriting at the University of Tulsa, where he is the director of the Interdisciplinary Program in Creative Writing. He has also written four books on playwriting and has seen his prose, poems, and plays published and performed around the country. These credentials have given rise to the highly accessible tone and distinctive voice Wright employs that makes this book so valuable.

Wright divides the book into nine chapters and an appendix. He spends the first two chapters defining terms, primarily what he means by "theatricality" and his suggestions for methods that will help individuals to think in a theatrical way. He immediately makes clear his position on the teaching of playwriting in the first chapter while discussing whether playwrights should direct their own work, concluding that "I leave it to you to discover your own perspective on this matter" (9). This open pedagogical perspective rises time and again throughout the course of the book and remains an underlying theme that I, as a theatre artist and teacher myself, particularly responded to: "Take what you need and leave the rest." Wright trusts his students, and through that trust becomes their champion. Indeed, one of the sections in chapter 2 is titled "Empowering the Playwright."

The rest of the book consists of exercises Wright has created through trial and error in workshops and through his own experience. He dubs these exercise "etudes" and defines them as follows: "For a musician, it's an exercise, such as scales, designed to strengthen key skills and techniques. . . . The etudes in this book apply to playwriting by refining technique—what a jazz musician would call 'developing your chops'" (23). The strength of Wright's etudes—and there are over a hundred suggested, not including various combinations students can play with and employ for themselves—lies in his underlying belief in the power of experimentation, with specific regard to theatricality. "Try it," Wright encourages his students repeatedly, and the etudes are there for that purpose. Experimentation becomes a repeated theme throughout the book, and Wright strengthens this idea by suggesting that his readers also explore plays and performance pieces from cultures with which they might be unfamiliar. Playwriting students familiar with Paul Castagno's New Playwriting Strategies will respond to Wright's belief that plays and the people who create them will continue to experiment with shifting paradigms and schools of thought that define "theatre," "theatricality," and what exactly constitutes "a play."

Through the act of writing a book that will ostensibly offer its readers and practitioners a variety of ways of improving their writing or break through the walls they encounter, Wright places himself in a field already highly populated with texts designed to teach playwriting. He defends himself and his particular variety of positions throughout the course of the book, and whether the reader agrees with him or not, his rationales are always thoroughly and satisfactorily explained. My only real criticism of his approach is that occasionally he becomes too sympathetic to the potential positions that lie contrary to his own, overly playing devil's advocate as if to stave off criticism before he receives it. To his credit, however, Wright does not claim to hold all the answers—he simply encourages his readers to find their own.

As a playwright myself, I responded strongly to Wright's encouragement to "discover for yourself what works for you" (19). Reading the book for the first time, I...