{"product_id":"backwards-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays-9780809311101","title":"Backwards \u0026 Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe best-selling script analysis book for thirty-five years\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Considered an essential text since its publication thirty-five years ago, this guide for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Ball developed his method during his work as literary director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use to make their plays stageworthy. The text is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, exposition, imagery, conflict, theatricality, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play. Also included are guides for discovering what the playwright considers a play' s most important elements, thus permitting interpretation based on the foundation of the play rather than its details. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Using Shakespeare's \u003ci\u003eHamlet\u003c\/i\u003e as illustration, Ball assures a familiar base for clarifying script-reading techniques as well as exemplifying the kinds of misinterpretation readers can fall prey to by ignoring the craft of the playwright. Of immense utility to those who want to put plays on the stage (actors, directors, designers, production specialists) \u003ci\u003eBackwards \u0026amp; Forwards\u003c\/i\u003e is also a fine playwriting manual because the structures it describes are the primary tools of the playwright. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavid Ball\u003c\/b\u003e was one of the nation's first theater literary directors when he served under Michael Langham at Minneapolis's Guthrie Theater. He later taught acting, directing, and script analysis at Lawrence, Carnegie Mellon, and Duke Universities. He was the artistic director of Pittsburgh's renowned Metro Theater and the literary director of the Pittsburgh Public Theater. David Ball's plays and adaptations have been frequently staged at professional repertory theaters throughout the United States and in Europe, including most recently his landmark adaptations of Moliere's \u003ci\u003eTartuffe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Miser\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Imaginary Invalid\u003c\/i\u003e. His former theater and film students hold Oscars, Obies, Tonys, and Emmys, and his own work has been supported by the Ford, McKnight, and Shubert Foundations, and the National Endowment for the Arts.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Southern Illinois University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50717771825426,"sku":"9780809311101","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_d0fc3122-c122-4dd4-9486-97680b7a507b.jpg?v=1734626066","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/backwards-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays-9780809311101","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}