THEATREPEDIA

WELCOME to this Internet watering hole for the vast unwashed herds of writers.  Here you can publish your own plays, read other people's plays, and immerse yourself in the art, craft and business of playwriting.  If you have questions about playwriting or screenwriting, e-mail the Answer Man, aka Colin McKay, at mckayc@aol.com.

Shakespeare

THE PLAY & MONOLOGUE COLLECTION
This collection contains plays available for production and monologues available to actors for audition purposes. These works have been submitted to this site by playwrights from around the world. Some have won awards, and several have been produced after being discovered here.

STUDY RESOURCES FOR WRITERS can be found in the Theatrepedia. News, questions, and answers can be found at the Theatre Newsgroup.

Congreve

A FINAL WORD OF ADVICE
Seneca was ordered to commit suicide, Ben Jonson was imprisoned, Ben Hecht was banished to Hollywood. These are some of the terrible fates that have befallen  playwrights who tempted the Box-office God's wrath with social commentary.  Nonetheless some brave writers attempt to get away with thought in theatre, and for them we suggest this playwright's statement to the audience, from William Congreve's comedy The Way of the World:

He owns with toil he wrought the following scenes;
But, if they're naught, ne'er spare him for his pains:
Damn him the more; have no commiseration
For dullness on mature deliberations,
He swears he'll not resent one hissed-off scene,
Nor, like those peevish wits, his play maintain,
Who, to assert their sense, your taste arraign.
Some plot we think he has, and some new thought;
Some humour too, no farce; but that's a fault. 
Satire, he thinks, you ought not to expect;
For so reformed a town who dares correct?
To please, this time, has been his sole pretence,
He'll not instruct, lest it should give offence.
Should he by chance a knave or fool expose,
That hurts none here, sure here are none of those:
In short, our play shall (with your leave to show it)
Give you one instance of a passive poet,
Who to your judgements yields all resignation;
So save or damn, after your own discretion.