{"id":27,"date":"2012-09-15T09:47:09","date_gmt":"2012-09-15T13:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/?p=27"},"modified":"2013-02-28T14:28:19","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T19:28:19","slug":"playwright-versus-dramatist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/?p=27","title":{"rendered":"Playwright versus Dramatist"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I am going to define two words in a sense that they are not commonly used; the two words are playwright <\/em>and dramatist.\u00a0 <\/em>Usually, the terms are used synonymously, but for the point I wish to illustrate, I intend to give each a separate meaning.\u00a0 I will define a playwright <\/em>as someone who is drawn to the theatre as a medium of creative expression\u2014and more specifically, as a medium of creative expression that comes from within him or her\u2014but not necessarily autobiographical.\u00a0 This person has decided that he primarily wants to write plays rather than novels or poetry and will usually endeavor to learn as much as possible about the theatre before seriously undertaking an actual writing project.\u00a0 A dramatist <\/em>is also drawn to the theatre and also chooses to express himself exclusively through this medium; but unlike the playwright, <\/em>the dramatist <\/em>does not find his material from within himself, rather he looks for material that he can dramatize, <\/em>that is, to put in a form that makes for good theatre, and he often finds this material in novels, biography (history) and current events.\u00a0 An example of such a dramatization <\/em>would be a play from the 1950\u2019s called The Caine Munity Court Martial<\/em>.\u00a0 This play was based on a novel entitled The Caine Mutiny<\/em>, in which the actual court martial dramatized\u00a0in the play comprised only a small part.\u00a0 In fact, court trials real or fictional, have often been favored by dramatists.\u00a0 Compulsion (<\/em>a 1957 play based <\/em>on <\/em>the Leopold and Loeb trial, not the recent play based on the author\u2019s life) <\/em>and Inherit the Wind (<\/em>the Scopes \u201cMonkey\u201d trial) <\/em>are some examples of the former (coincidentally, the actual defense lawyer depicted in both plays was the great Clarence Darrow).<\/p>\n

On the Broadway stage throughout the 1950\u2019s and early 1960\u2019s, Tennessee Williams was the preeminent playwright <\/em>of his day; <\/em>no one doubted <\/em>that <\/em>the plays which he wrote came from within (although they were not necessarily autobiographical).\u00a0 Audiences flocked to each new work by him to see what new insights he had for them on the human condition.\u00a0 But that does not mean that his plays were invariably critical or box-office successes; most were not.\u00a0 At the same time there were many plays performed on Broadway written by what I have defined above as dramatists<\/em>.\u00a0 Many of these plays were written by two person writing teams and were hugely successful.\u00a0 The fact that today most of these plays are now forgotten, as well as the dramatists themselves (while the works of Tennessee Williams are still performed), should not detract from their dramatic and entertainment value.\u00a0 Today, little original drama is performed on Broadway, whether it be the work of playwright<\/em> or dramatist<\/em>.\u00a0 Most of the latter now work in television, where there is a huge demand for this entertainment fare.<\/p>\n

You probably would think that I hold the work of playwrights<\/em> in higher esteem than I do of that of dramatists<\/em>.\u00a0 Not true.\u00a0 The creative process may be somewhat different, but one is not necessarily better than the other.\u00a0 And the line between the two is not always clear; nor are the two mutually exclusive.\u00a0 For example, Jean Giraudoux did not write Tiger at the Gates<\/em> (Le guerre de Troie n\u2019aura pas lieu<\/em>) because he felt that the Trojan War provided sure-fire dramatic material: instead he was looking for a vehicle through which to dramatize his brilliant insights and ideas.\u00a0 And the same could probably be said of Peter Shaffer\u2019s Amadeus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

And now this brings us to film.\u00a0 Here we also have the equivalents of playwright<\/em> and dramatist<\/em>.\u00a0 And most filmmakers, directors and screenwriters belong to the latter category.\u00a0 But again, the distinction is not always clear.\u00a0 Why do I believe that this distinction is important?\u00a0 Because it determines how we must critique them.\u00a0 I came to this realization years ago while conducting a screenwriting workshop at the New School of Social Research in New York.\u00a0 I found that when working with participants who were truly writing from within my role was almost that of a therapist.\u00a0 I would often say things to them like, \u201cYou\u2019re not the only na\u00efve young woman to come to New York from a small town and be taken advantage of.\u201d\u00a0 Or, \u201cYou\u2019re not the only young man to face disappointment and be treated unfairly.\u00a0 Get over your self-pity.\u201d\u00a0 When people write autobiographical fiction, they often tend to justify bad life choices and change the way things really happened in order to make themselves come off better.\u00a0 So it was not uncommon for me to ask them if they were really being honest with themselves.\u00a0 With writers who were more of the dramatist <\/em>variety, my method of working with them was on more of a detached\u2014from the material, that is–professional level.\u00a0 If they were writing a thriller, I might suggest that they put in more plot twists or point out that their story was too predictable.\u00a0 And this brings me to my next insight:\u00a0 When dealing with \u201cplaywrights\u201d we must critique not only the Work, but the writer as well!\u00a0 In such instances, the only way to improve the work is to improve the writer.<\/p>\n

Illustrative of this insight is Federico Fellini\u2019s 8 \u00bd<\/em>.\u00a0 In this celebrated film, Fellini found an apt subject for his burgeoning cinematic talent:\u00a0 himself.\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong>His alter-ego in the film, Guido, also a filmmaker, states that he wants to make an honest picture, one without lies.\u00a0 And how did Guido first attempt to do this?\u00a0 The same was as Fellini: by making a film in which his protagonist\u2014really himself\u2014instead of facing up to his personal crisis directly, abstracts it\u2014that is, reflects on it on a much broader basis: e.g. mankind, including the Catholic Church, attempting to leave the earth in a gigantic spaceship in order to start over again (the actual reason for the ridiculous rocket-launching platform set).\u00a0 And, as pre-production on the two films progressed\u2014Fellini\u2019s and Guido\u2019s\u2014both became more autobiographical, and consequently less abstract and more honest.\u00a0 Thus by confronting his inner demons (without reservations), Fellini\u2019s work steadily improved; hopefully the work of his alter ego, Guido, will improve in the same manner.<\/p>\n

Playwright, Heal thyself!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I am going to define two words in a sense that they are not commonly used; the two words are playwright and dramatist.\u00a0 Usually, the terms are used synonymously, but for the point I wish to illustrate, I intend … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,8],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-theiory","tag-fellini","tag-tennessee-williams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27\/revisions\/29"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/screenplayasliterature.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}