A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. These works may be written specifically to be performed by actors or they may be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance. A closet drama is a play that is not intended to be performed onstage but read by a solitary reader or sometimes out loud in a small group perhaps in a small room called
The term is not a variant spelling of playwrite, but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder (as in a wheelwright or cartwright). Hence the prefix and the suffix combine to indicate someone who crafts plays. The homophone with write is in this case coincidental. A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning
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Early playwrights
The earliest playwrights in Western literature with surviving works are the Ancient Greeks, some of their earliest plays having been written around the 5th century BC. The Greeks ( Greek: Έλληνες) are a Nation and Ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighbouring regions Such notables as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes established forms that are still relied on by their modern counterparts. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus Aristophanes (Ἀριστοφάνης ˌærɪˈstɒfəniːz in English ca
While the most famous playwright in the English language is William Shakespeare, whose classic tragedies, comedies, and histories are still being performed hundreds of years after they were written, the term 'playwright' appears to have been coined by Ben Jonson in his Epigram 49, To Playwright,[1] as an insult, to imply an inferior hack-writer for the theatre. William Shakespeare ( baptised Benjamin Jonson ( c 11 June 1572 &ndash 6 August 1637) was an English Renaissance Dramatist He always described himself as a poet, since plays during that time period were always written in meter and so regarded as the provenance of poets. This view was held even as late as the early 19th Century. However, it later lost this negative connotation.
Contemporary playwrights
Contemporary playwrights often do not reach the same level of fame or cultural importance that they have in the past, since the theatre is no longer the only outlet for serious drama or entertaining comedies, and must compete with films and television for an audience. In addition, the perilous state of funding for the arts in the U. Patronage is the support encouragement privilege and often financial aid given by a person or an organization S. and a growing reliance on ticket sales as a source of income for non-profit theatres has caused many of them to reduce the number of new works they produce. A non-profit organization ( abbreviated "NPO" also "not-for-profit" is a legally constituted Organization whose objective is to support or engage For example, Playwrights Horizons produced only six plays in the 2002-03 seasons, compared with thirty-one in 1973-74. Playwrights Horizons is a Not-for-profit Off-Broadway theater located in New York City dedicated to the support and development of contemporary American [2] As revivals and large-scale production musicals become the de rigueur Broadway (and even Off-Broadway) production, it has become much more difficult for playwrights to make a living in the business, let alone become major successes. Broadway theater, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located Off-Broadway plays or musicals are performed in New York City. Despite this, some playwrights are still able to create an immense following, such as Tyler Perry
However, the most successful playwrights are often high-status figures in their industry, in stark contrast to the status of the screenwriter in Hollywood. Tyler Perry (born September 13, 1969,is an American Playwright, Screenwriter, Actor and Director and Producer Screenwriters or scenarists are Scriptwriters who write the Screenplays from which Films and Television programs are made While this may be considered to be a result of the more literary approach that has characterised the theatre since its roots in poetry, it is also because of the hard fact that according to Dramatists Guild , the playwright has the final say on a production — a situation which leaves less room for the director to be as much of an auteur as the film director, since the playwright’s vision takes precedence. Theatre (or theater, see spelling differences) is the branch of the Performing arts defined by Bernard Beckerman as what "occurs when one The Dramatists Guild of America is a professional organization for Playwrights Composers and Lyricists working in the U A theatre director or stage director is a practitioner in the Theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production (a play, A film director, or filmmaker, is a person who directs the making of a Film.
See also
References
External links
- Playwriting 101 - A playwriting tutorial written by playwright and screenwriter Jon Dorf. List of notable Playwrights. See also' Literature; Drama; List of playwrights by nationality and date of birth; Lists Screenwriters or scenarists are Scriptwriters who write the Screenplays from which Films and Television programs are made
- The Playwriting Seminars - playwriting site written and maintained by Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
- Guide to Plays and Playwrights - A forum to discuss classic and contemporary playwrights and playwriting techniques.
- Free Play Scripts - Free play scripts and resources on drama available for educational purposes and school productions by playwright D. M. Bocaz-Larson.
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