How Not to Write a Play

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How Not to Write a Play is a book written by Walter Kerr, onetime chief theatre critic for the New York Times. The first edition was published in 1955 by Simon and Schuster.

The book is an examination of what Kerr perceived were various negative trends and flaws in playwrighting. Kerr's tone in the book is at various points jocular, learned and lucid, with humorous titles, clear prose and a wide evident knowledge of playwrights from the Greeks all the way to Arthur Miller and other playwrights of the mid 20th century.

The book, of moderate length (244 pages), takes on many themes and topics. Kerr offers insights both into the practice and finances of contemporary theatre, blaming the declining audience (declining even in 1955) on the poor and unentertaining fare being put before the public by both commercial and institutional producers. He begins by asserting that plays will always be more successful if they are highly entertaining, and argues that the entertainment can be at once enjoyable and artistically sophisticated. Above all, Kerr is an advocate for creating believable, creative characters, even at the expense of clean structures in plays or overarching intellectual / political theses.