The Human Nature of Playwriting

by Samson Raphaelson

Samson Raphaelson’s classic book, culled from his experience in teaching a master class on dramatic writing at the University of Illinois in 1948, is both a discussion on the craft of playwriting and of the nature of creativity. The Human Nature of Playwriting is a valuable resource for playwrights, creative writers, scholars, historians, and any reader interested in studying the creative process. Edition includes a foreword by Joel Raphaelson.

Introduction Excerpt
Let’s say the object of this course is to put every student through an experience which will make him realize what it is like to write creatively—to look at life, at your own lives probably, to see something, to feel, to study that vision and emotion, to find a meaning in the material, a form, to put it down in words, to study it again, re-seek the meaning, revise your approach, write it again and again, until it is crystallized. If you can go through such an experience, my theory is that those who can write will have learned more about writing, and those who cannot write will have caught a glimpse of what is behind a play, a story, a novel—and, incidentally, will have caught a new glimpse of their own lives.

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, Drama

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 1, 2015

About the author

Samson Raphaelson (March 30, 1894 – July 16, 1983) was an American playwright, screenwriter and fiction writer.

While working as an advertising executive in New York, he wrote a short story based on the early life of Al Jolson, called The Day of Atonement, which he then converted into a 1925 play, The Jazz Singer. In 1927 this would become the first talking picture, with Jolson its star.

Reviews

[Steph · Rating 5 out of 5]

P 2

I have a theory. Let’s say the object of this course is to put every student through an experience which will make him realize what it is like to write creatively—to look at life, at your own lives probably, to see something, to feel, to study that vision and emotion, to find a meaning in the material, a form, to put down in words, to study it again, re-seek the meaning, revise your approach, write it again and again, until it is crystallized. If you can go through such an experience, my theory is that those who can write will have learned more about writing, and those who cannot write will have caught a glimpse of what is behind a play, a story, a novel—and, incidentally, will have caught a new glimpse of their own lives.

In other words, this course does not aim directly to teach writing. Whether you write or not after you finish school means nothing to me as a teacher. In fact, I don’t think it is important from any viewpoint. But whether you live or not is important, and how you live. You may become businessmen or women, or rice workers, farmers, or wives, and as such you will be, whether you know it or not, deeply related to the culture of your age. That culture is largely expressed by creative writers through the written word. And if from this course you get a notion of how that written word comes into being, of the connection between a writer and his own life and between his life and all lives, then this course will have succeeded indeed.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it! Had to do some searching to find it, since it's out of print. I got it because of this review from The Onion AV Club, which I more or less agree with:

"Far and away the best new book I read in 2010 comes from 1949 and has long been out of print. Samson Raphaelson was the screenwriter for, among others, The Shop Around The Corner, and in the spring of 1948, he met with a bunch of students at the University of Illinois to teach a class that was ostensibly about being a playwright, but ended up being about much more, like why we construct fictions, and the worth of personal experience in made-up stories. The book The Human Nature Of Playwriting collects nearly everything said in the classroom, and it becomes so much more than a writers’ guide. Raphaelson and the students almost become characters, the experiences that make up their plays become very real, and the bonds they form are unshakable. It’s one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read, and I heartily recommend it to anyone who wants to pursue any sort of career as any kind of writer."

Some of the attitudes are a bit dated, since it's from 1948 (women in the class are presumed to become housewives who will write on the side, for example), but the advice is still worthwhile.

[Holly Raymond · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book-- a transcript of a 1948 creative writing workshop that has garnered a fierce, eccentric reputation since lapsing out of print-- because I was recently asked to teach a playwriting class, something I do not know how to do (both playwriting and teaching playwriting).

Do I know how to teach playwriting now? Not really. Do I feel like I could write a play now? Buddy this book makes me feel like I could write a play while doing a backflip over a building. Am I looking forward to teaching playwriting now? More than anything. Holy smokes. I don't know how this stacks up in terms of books about playwriting, but it's secretly one of the best books about teaching I've ever read, even if Raphaelson is often a bit rude in a very 1948 way.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The next time a budding novelist/playwright/screenwriter asks me for a "how to" guide on writing, I'm going to direct them towards this book, even though it'll likely infuriate them because it doesn't provide any hard and fast rules. Instead, this modest memoir recounts Samson Raphaelson's semester at a midwestern college where he taught the art of the one-act. His recollections here are full of useful suggestions, gentle nudges, and sage observations culled from a career that spanned "The Jazz Singer," "The Shop Around the Corner," and Hitchcock's "Suspicion." That's quite a resume and this is quite a special book.

[Justin Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caught onto this one via Emily St James, the writer and critic -- and it really is different than any other craft book, as a famous playwright guides a mixed-age group through the conception, process, and revision of one-act plays in the midst and aftermath of WWII. There's little in the way of adages here and much in the way of taking specific situations and refining them -- it has an immediacy few how-to books on writing have, and is frequently pretty moving besides.

[Emma Sea]

The format didn't work for me. The book is a verbatim transcript of a playwriting course held over four months in 1948. The table of contents lists the classes by date. My impatience kicked in. I could not identify areas I was interested in and jump to them. I had to close read the whole thing because there are gems of advice hidden right next to Raphaelson's irritation that no one is handing in their homework. He says the class will have X format, then changes his mind the next week and says, based on how things are going so far, it will be Y format. All of this is perfectly natural for a classroom experience, but boy, it is irritating to read in book form.

Although I did not finish, my favorite part by far is the notes Raphaelson added about the students when he edited the transcripts, e.g. "Their plots were feeble."

[Cameron Rhoads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Changed the way I read characters in literature and film. Crazy insightful.

[Jeremy Hung · Rating 4 out of 5]

Let me put it this way--imagination to me is not the capacity to invent what is not there but the capacity to see and develop what is there."