Art Of Dramatic Writing

Lajos Egri (1888-1967) was born in Hungary and founded the Egri School of Writing in New York City in the 1930s. In addition to writing books, he spent his life writing and directing plays in both the United States and Europe, as well as writing screenplays for the film industry.

Lajos Egri examines a play from the inside out, starting with the heart of any drama: its characters. For it is people - their private natures and their inter-relationships - that move a story and give it life. All good dramatic writing depends upon an understanding of human motives. Why do people act as they do? What forces transform a coward into a hero, a hero into a coward? What is it that Romeo does early in Shakespeare's play that makes his later suicide seem inevitable? Why must Nora leave her husband at the end of A Doll's House? These are a few of the fascinating problems which Egri analyzes. He shows how it is essential for the author to have a basic premise - a thesis, demonstrated in terms of human behaviour - and to develop his dramatic conflict on the basis of that behaviour. Premise, character, conflict: this is Egri's ABC. His book is a direct, jargon-free approach to the problem of achieving truth in a literary creation.

CONTENTSINTRODUCTIONFOREWORDPREFACEI PREMISEII CHARACTER1. The Bone Structure2. Environment3. The Dialectical Approach4. Character Growth5. Strength of Will in a Character6. Plot or Character -- Which?7. Characters Plotting Their Own Play8. Pivotal Character9. The Antagonist10. Orchestration11. Unity of OppositesIII CONFLICT1. Origin of Action2. Cause and Effect3. Static4. Jumping5. Rising6. Movement7. Foreshadowing Conflict8. Point of Attack9. Transition10. Crisis, Climax, ResolutionIV GENERAL1. Obligatory Scene2. Exposition3. Dialogue4. Experimentation5. The Timeliness of a Play6. Entrances and Exits7. Why Are Some Bad Plays Successful?8. Melodrama9. On Genius10. What Is Art? -- A Dialogue11. When You Write a Play12. How to Get Ideas13. Writing for Television14. ConclusionAPPENDIX A. Plays AnalyzedAPPENDIX B. How to Market Your PlayAPPENDIX C. Long Runs on BroadwayINDEX