Rewrites and rehearsals are the final steps of crafting a play. But how does a playwright interest a theater company in the first place? In this program, Richard Wherret, Alana Valentine, Will Dunne, Ros Horin, and other theater professionals examine the process of rewriting and the role of the playwright in rehearsals-as well as how to sell a play in the drama marketplace. Common pitfalls of writing for the stage are also addressed, along with the...

David Henry Hwang has experienced stereotyping firsthand. Today, he dedicates his work as a successful dramatist to dispelling those hackneyed portrayals of Asian-Americans that he encountered in his youth. In this program, ABC News correspondent John Yang interviews the Tony Award-winning playwright who brought M. Butterfly to Broadway and whose latest effort, a contemporary version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, renovates and reshapes...

A documentary portrait of this bold theatrical innovator and his work. The program shows his roots and the theatrical and social background of his formative years, and analyzes the development of his vision of the theatre-episode in place of Aristotelian plot, the use of nonliterary devices, new techniques in character portrayal, and new aims for the very concept of theatre.

Second only to Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen is the most-performed playwright in the world. This program, as much a tribute to the art of theater as to the immortal Ibsen, reveals a perennial fascination with Norway's master playwright. Excerpts from A Doll's House, Peer Gynt, and other productions captured on film in the United States, Canada, Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Serbia, Iran, China, Argentina, and Venezuela are included, as well as interviews...

In 1925 Luigi Pirandello brought his troupe to England as part of a worldwide tour. This program re-creates one day in London as "The Einstein of the Theater" watches his plays and, away from the footlights, confronts the paradoxical nature of his life. Portions of Six Characters in Search of an Author; Henry IV; Right You Are, If You Think You Are; and The Rules of the Game are meticulously staged, using actors' accounts, period descriptions, and...

Never before has Shakespeare's 'Scottish play' been performed quite like this. Trevor Kervis, director un-extraordinaire, strikes again in this farcical look at the dramatic techniques in Macbeth that have made it a favorite among thespians since Elizabethan times. Students will enjoy the quirky characters and upbeat analysis that feature in the program. If 'all the world's a stage' then Trevor Kervis must be the clown.

Presenting the haunting story of America's only Nobel Prize-winning playwright, this episode of American Experience details the harrowing family dramas and personal upheavals that shaped Eugene O'Neill and which he in turn struggled all his life to confront through his art. Viewers are introduced to the masterpieces O'Neill created at the very end of his career-chief among them The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night-with the aid of scenes...

The long-awaited third volume of Robert McKee's trilogy on the art of fiction. Following up his perennially bestselling writers' guide Story and his inspiring exploration of the art of verbal action in Dialogue, the most sought-after expert in the storytelling brings his insights to the creation of compelling characters and the design of their casts. Character explores the design of a character universe: the dimensionality, complexity and arcing of...

Comedy is the complement of tragedy, and tragedy is one of the oldest forms of ritual in the Western world. However, while tragedy is linked to the sacred, comedy is often linked to the profane and sometimes even the sacrilegious. This program explores comedy, from Aristophanes and Cicero to the Christian ban on humor. The Feast of Fools and Carnival as Christian institutions that celebrate the profane are examined, along with the role of the Fool...