ABSTRACT

Playwrights on Television features interviews with writers of award-winning stage plays and celebrated television shows reflecting on the successes and challenges of being a playwright in the post-network television era.

In these conversations, eighteen dramatists consider their professional paths and creative choices, from training and education to thoughts on craft and technique, and discuss a range of issues relevant to the development of dramatic writing today. Theatergoers and TV aficionados alike will find new perspectives on the journeys traveled by some of their favorite plays and series, such as The Affair, The Americans, Boardwalk Empire, GLOW, House of Cards, Insecure, Mad Men, Orange Is the New Black, Shameless, She’s Gotta Have It, Vida, and The West Wing.

A valuable resource for aspiring stage and television writers, as well as theater and media scholars investigating the works of these dramatists, Playwrights on Television sheds light on the role of the contemporary playwright in the latest Golden Age of television.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

Naming

chapter 1|10 pages

Tanya Barfield

chapter 2|14 pages

Jocelyn Bioh

chapter 3|14 pages

Sheila Callaghan

chapter 4|15 pages

Kristoffer Diaz

chapter 5|15 pages

Bash Doran

chapter 6|13 pages

Laura Eason

chapter 7|14 pages

Madeleine George

chapter 8|11 pages

Jason Grote

chapter 9|14 pages

Jordan Harrison

chapter 10|13 pages

David Henry Hwang

chapter 11|9 pages

MJ Kaufman

chapter 12|14 pages

Itamar Moses

chapter 13|13 pages

Janine Nabers

chapter 14|12 pages

Christopher Oscar Peña

chapter 15|12 pages

Adam Rapp

chapter 16|12 pages

Tanya Saracho

chapter 17|10 pages

Diana Son

chapter 18|12 pages

Tracey Scott Wilson

chapter |10 pages

Afterword

Renaming