How To Write A Play
Jul 15th, 2007 by Bookworm
Is it just me, or are playwriters really dropping the ball these days? Instead of producing original, creative plays that I actually want to see, it appears that most theatres are content to churn out remakes of existing plays. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve walked out of a theater shaking my head in disappointment at what I just saw and telling myself that I could do better than that if only I could learn the basics about how to write a play script.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I know that it’s not easy to write a play script, so I’m not knocking the craft itself by any means. But the fact that the theatres consistently choose to stage rehashed material makes me think that perhaps they don’t have a towering stack of quality playwriters at their fingertips. I believe that I have several great ideas, and I want to learn how to write a play script so I can get these ideas on paper.
After just a few minutes of research, I discovered that there’s no shortage of information for people who want to write a play script. It seems that would-be playwriters generally take one of three different routes. One of the most common ways to learn how to write a play script is by reading books on the subject. I went to my local public library and was blown away by all of the play writing books I saw.
Some of the books were by recognizable names, but most were by people I’d never heard of. I decided to check out a couple of writers I was familiar with since they’ve already proven that they actually can write a play script. Overall, I have to say that the books were helpful and were a great start, but I needed something more.
That led me to consider the second most common way of learning how to write a play script, which is to take a play writing course or workshop. I visited some community colleges in my area and found a couple of promising courses. I have to be honest with you, though. The choices weren’t very overwhelming. If you really want to learn how to write a play script in a decent play writing class, you’re going to have to shell out a good bit of money for it.
The third way that to write a play script is simply by doing it. I found out that a lot of people use a screenplay template for their word processing program (or purchase play writing software) and then just learn as they go along. I can see the advantages in this route since I’d actually be writing rather than reading and researching. But I personally need more structure than this option gives me.
The bottom line here is that I’m finally pursuing my dream and taking steps to write a play script on my own. Hopefully, one of my plays will make it all the way to the silver screen someday.
