Notes from a Working-Class Playwright

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents Notes from a Working-Class Playwright, written and read by Leo Butler

Award-winning British playwright, Leo Butler looks back over 25 of writing for the stage and his extensive experience teaching and mentoring emerging playwrights through the Royal Court Young Writers' Programme.

With honesty and humour, Leo Butler shares his experiences from his working-class upbringing in Sheffield, including his disastrous state education, his years on the dole, to his breakthrough into the professional theatre industry.

This personal account criss-crosses his life and career, exploring the influences and experiences that informed critically acclaimed plays such as Redundant, I'll Be the Devil, Lucky Dog and, more recently, Boy.

Throughout, Butler includes a wealth of tips and practical exercises, tried and tested on his students, to help the reader with their own playwriting development; discusses the challenges of how to actually make a living from this work; and considers how the landscape has changed today from 25 years ago.

Through recollections of collaborations with professional peers and ex-students (including Polly Stenham, Anya Reiss, and Nick Payne), Leo Butler gives an insight into the intricacies of the early 21st century theatre scene in which playwriting skills were developed and shared. He also includes excerpts from personal rejection letters, rehearsal notes and his notebooks to bring his playwriting journey to life.

Brutally honest, often surreal, often funny, this book will entertain and inspire anyone who has ever thought of writing, a play, or is interested in the life and practice of a playwright.

Critics Review

Both a practical guide to playwriting and a memoir, Butler talks eloquently about childhood and place (he was raised in Sheffield) as an endless deep well for him to draw on as a playwright.
The Stage
For me, [Leo] Butler is a poet of the human damage of poverty. His language is terse and fractured. He reminds me as much of Emily Dickinson as he does of many playwrights. He is, I think, as close as English theatre has come to the master of Bavarian naturalism Franz Xavier Kroetz.
Simon Stephens, playwright
This book is much more than an autobiography. Using his experience of mentoring playwrights all over the UK and beyond, Butler offers lots and lots of excellent advice about writing: getting started, how to develop an idea, how to structure a play, how to find the hidden play inside you, and then some super stuff about coping with rehearsals, press nights and all the rest … His enthusiasm for the work of other playwrights runs like a thumping heartbeat throughout the text. He also pays tribute, not only to directors, but also to lesser known inspirations such as Ola Animashawun of the Court’s Young Writers Programme, and the late Elyse Dodgson of their International Programme. And so much of this is deeply personal, such as extracts of rejection letters and honest recollections of downs as well as ups. Flicking through the book you get a real sense of the author’s personality: leftfield, often inspiring, sometimes cranky, theatrically ambitious and extremely practical. It’s occasionally surreal, sometimes funny and always revealing. Filling you with the feeling of creativity unleashed … Notes from a Working-Class Playwright is a really fine book about playwriting that’s both fascinating as a life story and compelling as a series of good ideas, all of which glitter in the mind long after you’ve put down the volume.
Aleks Sierz
A really fine book about playwriting that’s both fascinating as a life story and compelling as a series of good ideas, all of which glitter in the mind long after you’ve put down the volume.
Aleks Sierz Blog

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