Demystifying the playwriting process, Garrison speaks directly to practitioners, offering the lessons of the craft in his trademark blend of honesty, humor, and horse sense.

The Playwright's Survival Guide is written for both aspiring and established writers looking for an emotional, spiritual, or just plain practical connection back to what's important - the writing. It's a "how-to-be" book - with thoughts, stories of inspiration, a few tricks of the trade, a few outlets for venting frustrations, and a reassuring voice that speaks to all the doubts with an "I know. I've been there. This is what you do . . ." Gary Garrison demystifies the playwriting process, speaking honestly, poignantly, and with humor about the lessons he's learned along the way. He explores the issues playwrights face every day, including: inspiration criticism self-doubt relationships with teachers and mentors the art of self-promotion writer's block staying healthy in the art after your fingers are off the keyboard.

Award-winning musical dramatist and teacher David Spencer provides a guide-to-the-game that helps you negotiate aspects of the musical theatre business and more.

Simon explores the writerly journey with compassion, offering ways to stay productive and successful.

The Tech Writing Game (Facts On File, 1992) offers a comprehensive introduction to the craft and business of technical writing.

Addressing the questions central to any playwright's career and identity, Jon Klein offers you a glimpse into a career writing for the theatre. As well as an account of the day-to-day life of a writer, he also discusses what an aspiring playwright should expect as they navigate the industry and how to make yourself stand out from the crowd. Furthermore, the book looks at situations that the emerging playwright is likely to encounter, including: handling rehearsals, workshops, castings, re-writing, venues, reviews, successes and failure. The book concludes with seventeen interviews with other USA-based playwrights, representing a wide range of experience, from writers just starting to make a name for themselves to seasoned, award-winning veterans such as Sheila Callaghan, Steven Dietz, Keith Glover, Lauren Gunderson, John Pielmeier and Jen Silverman. Author Jon Klein has a wealth of experience with over 30 of his plays produced in the USA and over 100 productions, including include T Bone N Weasel, Dimly Perceived Threats to the System, Betty the Yeti, and his most recent play, Resolving Hedda. Klein draws upon the lessons he has learned from his associations with numerous established theatre folk, many from the start of their careers. These include figures such as Bob Falls, Gregory Hines, Jon Jory, Kenny Leon, Dan Sullivan, and August Wilson.clude figures such as Bob Falls, Gregory Hines, Jon Jory, Kenny Leon, Dan Sullivan, and August Wilson.

A More Perfect Ten is a revision of Gary Garrison's pioneering book on writing and producing the 10-minute play, and it is now the most authoritative book on this emerging play form. The 10-minute play has become a regular feature of theatre companies and festivals from coast to coast, and Garrison has distilled the advice of many of those people who had been instrumental in promoting the ten minute play for the last few years. Replete with advice and tips on creating the successful 10-minute play, and cautions for avoiding the pitfalls, this new edition also includes addresses for the biggest and most important 10-minute festival opportunities, new sample 10-minute plays and questions for thought and discussion, and sample layout templates for laying out the play for submission. The savvy playwright at any level of skill can use this little book to great advantage. Plus Gary Garrison is warm, funny, irreverent, and essential.

(Limelight). " The invaluable Working on a New Play ...arrived, to my overwhelming delight and mental profit; I began and finished it in one long, insatiable, and educational night. Everything in it is new, illuminating and informative, lively and clarifying." Cynthia Ozick

With skills-focused exercises ranging from beginning to advanced levels, Writing for the Stage takes students through the creative process to develop a stageworthy script. The purpose of Writing for the Stage: A Practical Playwriting Guide is to provide students with a variety of exercises to help develop writing skills for the stage that eventually lead to the creation of a script. Although there is no magic formula--no right or wrong way to create a dramatic work--there are still traditional expectations for plot, conflict, theme, character development, dialogue, and so forth, that need to be discussed. Features Provides both a theoretical framework and practical exercises for developing skills, helping students to gain a complete understanding of the creative process. Includes exercises at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels for each topic, allowing instructors to choose the most appropriate exercises for their students. Looks at the relationship of writing to the practical realities of today's theatre, making students aware of how the realities of staging and budget must be considered in writing for today's theatre. Explores three kinds of conflict--internal, personal, and external--and conflict within society, providing many choices for developing dramatic situations. Discusses not only the "masculine" linear approach to playwriting but also "feminine" and non-linear structure, providing exercises for non-traditional, experimental scene development, opening students' eyes to exploring structure and character in more creative, experimental ways. Devotes an entire chapter to writing monologues, including short monologues within plays and long, one-person plays, providing extra guidance in this important technique. Offers extensive material on exploring character that is more detailed than in other texts, especially in the depth of physical, social, and psychological character development, providing students with a starting place to create characters. Praise for Writing for the Stage: A Practical Playwriting Guide "I haven't seen a more thorough text than Writing for the Stage. The exercises it suggests for student writers are ingenious and. . .of great benefit to anyone trying to develop the skills required to develop character, maintain audience interest and involvement, reveal exposition subtly, create a plausible and aesthetically satisfying plot structure, and so on. . . ." --David Wagoner, University of Washington "This book is distinguished and. . .is a superior and useful text because it is honest, very thorough, step-by-step, and comprehensive. It is wise about the way theatre works today. . . ." --Richard Kalinoski, University of Wisconsin--Oshkosh

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13) Think it takes a professional actor to have a puppet ministry? Think again. This book gives you a step-by-step plan and tons of tips on using puppets to tell children all about Jesus while entertaining them at the same time! Puppets are a wonderful teaching tool. They can be whatever you want them to be. Puppets can take on different personalities, exhibit various character traits, teach different lessons. Kids are drawn to puppets, opening doors and establishing instant trust. Tell a conventional story to kids and watch as their eyes glaze over. Their short attention spans cause them to squirm and by the end they've missed out on the whole point of the story. Use puppets to tell the story and suddenly every eye is on the stage. Your audience stays with you all the way through and weeks later you're still be hearing about the memorable things the puppets said and did--just like kids act when they're talking about their favorite videos or TV shows. Everything you need to start a new puppet ministry or breath new life into an existing one is in this book. The author, Susan Parsons, relates many firsthand experiences she has had during her substantial career as a playwright and puppeteer. Learn about creative ways of making puppets from all sorts of unconventional things. Find out how to build a nifty, professional-looking stage out of PVC pipe--lightweight, easy to work with and affordable. Get pointers on writing and presenting skits, on staging and lighting them, on recruiting people to help you! Also, the book contains puppet patterns and ready-to-present skits which you can use for practice or incorporate right into your ministry! After reading this book you won't just surviveas a puppeteer--you'll thrive! Product Update It has come to our attention that page 59 of The Official Puppet Ministry Survival Guide contains an error in the instructions for constructing the PVC stage. This error will be corrected when the book is next reprinted. Our apologies for the mistake. The correct numbers and dimensions of pieces appear below. 2.5 ft (8 pieces) 2 ft. 9 in. (8 pieces) 3.5 ft. (2 pieces) 4.5 ft. (6 pieces) 6 ft. (2 pieces) Also, page 60 incorrectly lists a 7 ft., 3 in. piece of pipe.