Letters to a Young Playwright: Practical and Impractical Advice on the Art of Playwriting [Paperback]

Adam Szymkowicz is that rarest of things: a full-time playwright. In an era when the business of live theatre seems perpetually on the verge of implosion, most dramatists survive only through soul-sucking day jobs, the largesse of patrons or their own families, or writing for television. Szymkowicz has carved out a distinctive niche for himself without relying on big institutions or the brass ring of a mega-hit Broadway production. Each year, his body of workover thirty sharp, funny, pop-culture-inflected plays animated by an unabashed romanticismis staged everywhere from big-city theatres to colleges and high schools.
InLetters to a Young Playwright, Szymkowicz dispenses hard-earned, unsentimental, and entertaining advice to early-career dramatists. Modeled on RilkesLetters to a Young Poet,it covers topics like writers block, self-promotion, and the pluses and minuses of pivoting to Hollywood in insightful and digestible short essays. Perfect for beginning playwrights as well as mid-career writers looking to reinvigorate their craft and career, it contains endlessly useful advice and reflections from one of the most-produced living playwrights in America.

ADAM SZYMKOWICZs plays have been produced throughout the U.S. and in twenty other countries. His work is published by Dramatists Play Service, Concord/Samuel French, Playscripts, Broadway Play Publishing, Theatrical Rights Worldwide, Stage Partners, and Original Works Publishing, and are featured in numerous Smith and Kraus and Applause books. His monologue bookSmall Explosionscame out from Applause in early 2023.

Adam received a Playwrights Diploma from The Juilliard School's Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program and an MFA from Columbia University, where he was the Deans Fellow. He worked as Playwrights Program Manager at l3$