Playwright

A playwright is someone who writes for the theatre.

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The word is not a variant spelling of playwrite, but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder. Hence the prefix and the suffix combine to indicate someone who crafts plays. The homophone with write is in this case coincidental.

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The term dramatist is sometimes synonymous with playwright, yet is reserved for an author of dramas as opposed to comedies or farces.

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The earliest playwrights with surviving works are Ancient Greeks, from the 5th century BC. Notable in their number are Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes.

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Contemporarily, successful playwrights ? in stark contrast to the lot of the screenwriter ? are often high-status figures in their industry. This is a corollary of the more literary approach that has characterised the theatre since its roots in poetry. The form has a greater reverence for the text and is much less oriented around a director. The playwright?s vision often takes precedence.

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In recent years this attitude has started to be slowly overhauled. A less rigidly formal approach to text for performance is now common, informed by practitioners like Jerzy Grotowski, Joan Littlewood and her prot?g? Mike Leigh.

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Documentary plays are also a common feature of the theatrical landscape since the middle of the Twentieth Century when they were employed, often tendentiously, in agit-prop or general political protest. These plays demand something different of a playwright, often the editing and reproduction of the other people?s words within a narrative structure. A recent example is Stuff Happens, David Hare?s 2004 play about the Iraq War, in which many of the speeches were taken verbatim from George W. Bush, Tony Blair et al.

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Playwright: A playwright is someone who writes for the theatre....

Theatre: :For other usages see Theatre (disambiguation)...

Dramatist: A dramatist is an author of dramatic compositions, usually plays. The term is usually reserved for those who have written "serious" plays (as opposed to comedies or farces). A more general term for an author of plays, of whatever type, is playwright....

Playwright related Images and Photos (experimental)

Shakespeare Playwright and Poet	Oscar Wilde Playwright and Dandy	William Shakespeare Playwright and Poet	William Shakespeare Playwright and Poet
William Shakespeare Playwright and Poet	William Shakespeare Playwright and Poet	Asian-American Playwright David Henry Hwang Posed Crouching on a Law Stone Pedestal	Noel Coward Actor Playwright and Songwriter
William Shakespeare English Playwright and Poet	George Bernard Shaw British Playwright and Critic in a Long Check Coat	Actor Paul Newman and Playwright Arthur Miller Among Crowd Attending Democratic National Convention	Jean-Baptiste Moliere French Playwright