- Introduction: The introduction will begin with a story about the death (and resurrection) of Theatricality. It will explain that this book is an investigation of what Theatricality means in the context of the playwright and playwriting. And it will provide an overview of the book and a statement of its purpose as a manifesto for the future of genuinely theatrical playwriting. 1. Breaking the Fourth Wall. This chapter will explore the many ways in which playwrights can break the Fourth Wall to enhance the connection between audience and actor. It will include sections on the use of Parabasis in Greek Comedy; the Aside; the Soliloquy; the Monologue; Audience Participation; the Induction (aka The Prologue) and Epilogue. 2.

Characterization . This chapter will explore characterization through the lens of Classical Greek Drama, Commedia dell''arte, Elizabethan Drama, and the work of contemporary writers (like David Mamet, Edward Bond, Aaron Sorkin) who do not believe in character development prior to the writing process. It will compare this approach to the work of Stanislavsky, the Actors Studio in New York, and the work of playwrights (like Lin Coughlan and Philip Osment) and writer-directors (like Mike Leigh) who are character-led in their work. It will ask: What is acting and to what extent does the playwright need to engage with the task of characterization in the writing process. This chapter will also explore the idea of characterization in the context of mask, puppetry, inanimate objects, and unseen "on stage" characters. 3. Use of Language. Too many contemporary dramatists receive their writing education from naturalistic television drama.

This chapter will challenge the playwright to move beyond naturalism in their writing with the use of prosody (meter, metaphor, alliteration, hyperbole, etc). It will explore the use of Blank Verse and the admixture of prose and poetry (the naturalistic and the lyrical). It will also look at the subject of sub-text through the prism of theatricality rather than naturalistic character development. And it will look at the way some contemporary writers are experimenting with the way they put words on the page (e.g. Ella Hickson; Jasmine Lee-Jones) including the use of dramatic grammar/punctuation as the playwright''s instruction to the actor. 4. Dramatic Structure .

Can we escape the Hero''s Journey? This chapter will look at a number of Alternative Theatrical Structures that other writers have used and that I have developed in workshops with writers: Fragments; Liminal; Existential; Absurd; Dream; Daisy Chain; Repeated Action; No Conflict; Non-Linear; the Wheel; River Structure; Branching Structure; Breaching Structure; Parallel Structure; Accumulative Structure. 5. Big Plays. A chapter about writing ambitious plays and plays with a large cast of characters. Over the last 50-60 years, plays have shrunk. They have withered into little naturalistic nuggets of Kitchen Sink drama with two or three characters. We escaped the drawing room for the council flat. Playwrights have forgotten how to write BIG.

This chapter will look at the plays of Shakespeare, Jonson, Lope de Vega and others to excavate the methodology behind writing large plays (with sub-plots). 6. Song & Dance . This chapter will investigate the use of music and dance in Greek Theatre and the use of song in Shakespeare''s plays with a view to how these techniques can be used in new plays. It will also look at the work of movement/physical theatre companies to assess what a playwright can learn from companies like like Gecko and DV8. It will look at the role of the playwright and lyricist in musical theatre - arguably the most theatrical of all forms of theatre. It will also look at the difference between plays with songs and musicals. 7.

Sets & Props. "In its healthiest ages the theatre has always exhibited the least scenery." Thornton Wilder. Does theatre need scenery? Does theatre need props? This chapter will argue the case for metaphor, metonymy, symbol, minimalism, and the bare stage. It will plead for simplicity in design. It will plead for the ascendency of imagination over technology. 8. Breaking the Rules .

This chapter will explore the work of playwriting rule breakers and innovators of the past like Shakespeare, Bertolt Brecht, Samuel Beckett and Caryl Churchill. It will look at mixing genre; mixing high art and low art; comedy and tragedy. It will examine how playwrights have used shock as a theatrical tactic throughout the ages - from relatives baked in pies in Seneca''s Thyestes Feast and Shakespeare''s Titus Andronicus, to anal rape in Romans in Britain and stoning babies in Saved. It will look at logic and coincidence in playwriting. It will also posit the idea of the playwright as thief - in other words it will show how playwrights steal other playwrights'' ideas and make them their own. 9. Naturalism. A chapter about naturalism and how to make it work theatrically.

In this chapter we will look at how playwrights have used naturalistic dialogue within a fundamentally theatrical concept, e.g. Nick Payne''s investigation of parallel universes in Constellations; Ben Power''s reinvention of Stefano Massini''s history of the Lehman Brothers in The Lehman Trilogy; Alice Birch''s examination of the language, behaviour and forces that shape women in Revolt, She Said, Revolt Again. 10. Collaboration. This chapter will look at the role of the playwright in the creation of a piece of theatre. It will celebrate the playwright as collaborator. I will use my experience as a working playwright to explore the ways in which collaboration informs the text and performance of the text.

This chapter will investigate the ups and downs of the dramaturgical process - the things to look out for, the things to avoid, the things to welcome. It will also look at the role of the director in the development and performance of new work, asking the question of to what extent it is the director''s responsibility the realise the theatricality of a play - referencing naturalistic plays by Arthur Miller, Mark Ravenhill and Jim Cartwright that were given a newly theatrical interpretation by directors in mainland Europe. It will also explore the question of collaboration in the context of working with actors. Ultimately, this chapter is about understanding that a play only truly exists on the stage in performance. Theatre is performance. It is essential for a playwright to understand the vicissitudes of this fact. 11. Postdramatic Theatre and Text.

In this chapter I will look at playwriting through the lens of postdramatic theatre (as explored by Hans-Thies Lehmann in his book ''Postdramatic Theatre''). The majority of postdramatic theatre that Lehmann is interested in is non-text based, however postrdramatic text does exist and in ''Beyond Drama: Writing for Postdramatic Theatre'', Malgorzatta Sugiere writes that postdramatic text can be viewed as "a means of inducing the audience to watch themselves as subjects which perceive, acquire knowledge and partly create the objects of their cognition". I will explore this idea through the work of Heiner Muller, Sarah Kane, Suzan Lori-Parks and Robert Lepage, and ask what contemporary playwrights can learn from the notion of postdramatic theatre. 12. The New Wave . This chapter will explore the techniques of the new wave of theatrically driven, contemporary plays, largely written by women playwrights. I will look at the work of Lucy Prebble, Alice Birch, Jasmine Lee-Jones, Phoebe Eclair-Powell, Clare Barron, Sarah Ruhl, and Ella Hickson. This chapter will seek to encapsulate the work of these playwrights in the way that Martin Esslin captured the essence of the Theatre of the Absurd in his seminal 1961 book of the same name.

It will suggest that the work of these women is the future of playwriting. 13. The Future. The book will conclude with a call for playwrights to remember that the first question they need to ask about any play they want to write should be: What is it about my play that is intrinsically theatrical? This chapter will challenge playwrights to use theatricality as the dominant form of playwriting in the 21st Century.