THE PLAYWRIGHT'S JOURNEY: FROM FIRST SPARK TO FIRS

Regular price
£14.99
Sale price
£14.99
Regular price
Sold out
Unit price
per 

Author: Jemma Kennedy

Format: Paperback

Pages: 277

Free shipping 

We are pleased to offer our customers free standard delivery for UK orders over £100, excluding print-on-demand prints or subscriptions.

Delivery costs

UK  (excluding Northern Ireland)

Below £50: £4.95  

£50–£100: £2.95  

£100+: FREE  

International (excluding Europe)

Below £50: £15  

Over £50: £30  

Delivery times

Our standard delivery times vary according to the delivery destination. For in stock items, we aim to deliver within:  

UK 2–5 working days  

International 10–14 working days  

Click and collect

We are pleased to offer you the option of collecting your order in person at our bookshop for free

You can collect your order from our bookshop between 10.00 am - 10.00 pm, Monday - Saturday.

You will receive an email from us when your order is ready to be collected.

Please read our delivery information page for more details.

Temporary Europe shipping pause

Unfortunately, we have temporarily suspended our shipping to Europe and Northern Ireland due to a new EU law titled GSPR.

We are working on a solution so we can resume shipping to these destinations soon. We are very sorry for any inconvenience caused.

Details

by Jemma Kennedy

A clear, supportive and comprehensive guide to writing a play - based on the author's long-running playwriting masterclasses, as taught at the UK's National Theatre.

This book leads you through everything you need to know, including:

  • The theatrical tools and techniques you can use to bring your play to life on the stage (and how these differ from writing for film and TV)
  • Discovering and trusting your writing process, with a range of approaches for developing your initial idea into a completed script
  • Understanding your characters, including their goals and central conflicts, and using emotional logic to connect them to your story
  • Finding the dramatic structure and theatrical setting that best suits your play
  • The key elements of constructing a great scene, including how to invoke tension, deepen characterisation and create effective transitions
  • Writing engaging, active dialogue by finding each character's voice, balancing exposition with subtext, and rooting what a character says in their specific context

Throughout, you'll find examples from classical and modern plays, plus insights from other contemporary playwrights into their own writing journeys. Each chapter provides a set of exercises to help you practise what you've learnt.

There's also advice on what to do once you've finished your script - including redrafting, receiving feedback and taking notes - and how to navigate your play's progress towards production.

Whether you're an emerging playwright or embarking on your first-ever play, The Playwright's Journey will help you develop your creativity, strengthen your connection to your material, and transform your idea into a fully formed play that feels alive on the page - and the stage.

Help us support theatre

Every purchase you make from the National Theatre Bookshop helps fund the vital work of the National Theatre. Whether that's putting new work on stages across the world or supporting our outreach and learning programmes, every purchase you make really does make a difference.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Sign up to our newsletter for 10% off your first order!

*By completing this form you're signing up to receive our emails and can unsubscribe at any time