Drawing on a wide range of plays, both historical and modern, The Secret Life of Plays examines the continuities, conventions and trade secrets that govern their writing. Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing, scenes, acts, time, space, characters, language and images to show how plays are more than the sum of their parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism. Deeply personal, but with the authority of an experienced teacher and practitioner, The Secret Life of Plays is an essential book for aspiring playwrights and a fascinating guide for other theatre practitioners and students of drama. As Convenor of the Playwriting Studies MPhil at Birmingham University the oldest and most respected course of its kind in the UK and a playwright whose work has been seen in the West End and beyond, Steve Waters is an ideal guide to the hidden workings of plays.

STEVE WATERS


　　STEVE WATERS is the Convenor of the Playwriting Studies MPhil at Birmingham University. His plays have been staged at the Donmar Warehouse (World Music), Sheffield Crucible (The Unthinkable), Hampstead Theatre (Fast Labour) and, most recently, the Bush Theatre (The Contingency Plan). All are published by NHB.