Pulling a Playwright Out of a Hat: A Practical Guide to Teaching Playwriting

by Robert St. John, Sam St. John (Illustrator)

Overview

A how-to guide for anyone who wants to teach playwriting to people who think they can't do it, or for yourself, if you would like to try your own hand at the magic of playwriting.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798218674465
Publisher:	Comedy Tragedy Dog, LLC
Publication date:	04/27/2025
Pages:	262
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Robert St. John was born in 1958 and grew up in the Atlanta suburbs with two older brothers. He spent his time wandering through woods, looking for snakes, staying away from crazy neighbors, and ignoring schoolwork. He thrived on comic books, children’s literature, late night monster movies and television reruns, especially the peculiar sitcoms of the 1960s and Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone”. In high school, he accidentally found himself cast in a school play. Through theater, he discovered a more interactive world of literature, and a world of creative collaboration. He loved acting, but more than that, he loved reading plays and seeing masterfully written plays downtown. He came to think of himself as a spelunker in the vast caverns of the world’s best playwrights. After graduating high school (just barely, which is what comes from ignoring your schoolwork), he moved around the country and (surprisingly) wound up going to college—at Western Kentucky University. He chose WKU for its theater program, but fell in love with creative writing classes and switched to an English degree. He started to dream of a life as a novelist. After graduation, and a time in various jobs, he left his low-level editing job at the Miami Herald and enrolled at the University of Oregon. After earning his MFA, he married and moved to Hawaii (where his wife was from) and took a job as the Public Relations Director for the Honolulu Theater for Youth. There, he was reintroduced to theater, and the following year, he began a long, successful career teaching theater in a private school, and began writing plays again—for school. In 2014, he won a national award from the American Association for Theater and Education for his drama program, known for creating original work with students. These days, Robert lives in Maryland, where he continues to write and teach. He has three grown children, all creative and much smarter than he is.