with this lecture we begin our discussions on the playwright and as most of you know the playwright is the person who actually writes the script the script which becomes the Constitution the Bible if you will for all things creative everybody who works as a director a designer a craftsperson artist a manager consults with this script in order to implement their contribution to the full-scale theatrical production the playwright is considered to be the central figure for certain aspects of a production but the least significant figure for other aspects I'll say that again the playwright is considered to be the central figure for certain aspects of a theatrical production but the least significant figure when it comes to other aspects so how can that possibly be well like I indicated at the beginning of this everybody who works creatively as an artist crafts person a technician even a manager implements their work within the margins created by the playwright all of the creative decisions have to be based on the work that the playwright gives us in that script in that regard the playwright becomes the central figure all decisions are based on the work of this one individual but the the bigger thing to understand is how the playwright becomes the least significant figure because in here we talk about full-scale theatrical production and in that regard the playwright becomes the last person considered in a creative decision so what do I mean by that a playwright these days is always replaced by specialization the playwrights replaced by specialists you have people who know a great deal more about their specific contribution to a duction than the playwright knows the playwright knows production in general that all these people with specific background and talent skill come in and implement their work think of it this way when my parents were growing up and something went wrong with their health whether it was a sore throat or a stomach ache or a twisted ankle or a scrape on the elbow or bump on the head their parents always took them to someone to fix it and that someone was always referred to as what a doctor right because back in those days doctors had a general understanding of all of these kinds of things all right there was a little bit of that going on when I was a kid as well but doctors today are specialized so the doctors have alter replaced by the specialists of the day you have people who specialize in ear nose and throat you have people known as foot doctors people who specialize on all things that deal with the heart or with the brain or the spinal cord or something like this so doctors today are replaced by specialists back when my parents were young and they were starting to drive and they got behind the wheel of a car and they learned that they had to pay for the things that went wrong with that car whether it be you know dragging muffler or a flat tire or a leaky oil pan or a stripped transmission or even some work that needed to be done on the radio they all knew back then to take that car to someone known as a mechanic mechanic back then knew how to take care of just about everything on a car cars back in those days weren't that complex there were glorified go-karts they had you know four wheels of steering wheel a cable to an accelerator pedal and they had a shell over it to protect us from the elements but today cars are far more sophisticated and the mechanic of old is now replaced by specialists you have mechanics now who specialized in power trains and work on transmissions and the like you have people now who are muffler specialists brake specialists infotainment Center specialists people who work on carburetors only or upholstery are just tires you name it there's a specialist for it so the mechanic evolved has been replaced by specialists that's how you can look at the the playwright over time you know back in the days of the ancient Greeks and in the column playing playwrights then they refer to them as dramatist the person who wrote the play also directed the play and starred in the play and did any kind of scenic activity for the plays mild as it may have been and they were known as basically the play person a dramatist someone who put all of this effort together but that's not the case anymore that playwright is now replaced by specialists the playwright writes the script but now you have a director who's highly skilled more so than the playwright and putting all these components together and telling the story in a powerful manner you have designers of sets and costumes and props and lighting plots and sounds for sound plots and all of this and they specialize in their specific area and they bring that one component of the full-scale theatrical production to life and make it larger than life so then you have the craftspeople who come in and build all this stuff and so all of this stuff and they're better at it than anybody else and before you know it this play this little thing was in a script to just wear lines on a piece of paper becomes so much larger than life that a playwright might be even and be impressed with the fact that he or she wrote that they might go to an opening night of a production go wow did I do that what an actuality no because they've been replaced by special a specialization they had a contribution to that granted it was the largest contribution they provided the the framework for which everything artistic was built but they are now just a collaborator in the full-scale effort so there is a saying and I want you to consider what you think this saying means the saying is that the playwright is no longer a theater coworker but rather and isolated an observer and social critic listen to that again and think about what you think that means a playwright is no longer considered a theatre co-worker but instead an isolated observer and social critic I asked this question quite often in my traditional classes and usually the first half of that is what throws them off isolate an observer most of the time students will think oh they just sit back and watch the play they don't they don't get involved in the directing or the acting or something like that because that's in reference to what we just said a few minutes ago but no we're looking at this in terms of who is the playwright in society not in terms of who is the playwright in the production in society a playwright is an artist so when we say that the playwright is an isolated observer what we mean is the role of a playwright now is to sit back and watch the rest of us just like painters do just like sculptors do and poets do in song writers they sit back and they watch what we've become they see how we interact with one another they make this determination of who we are and how we've changed and what's good about us and what's bad and like any other artist they put that interpretation into their work ie the script and that's what we mean by isolated observer they sit back and watch us the second part social critic means after they observe us when they start to put their interpretation of what humanity has become into the script they provide criticism of us we might not be happy with the way we are being portrayed in modern times you see cartoons a lot that have to do with your younger people staring at phones and bumping into trees and all of this stuff and it's kind of making fun of you all of this it's an exaggeration we can chuckle at it but there's a little hint of an insult there as well and you might not agree with it but that's fine art is in the eye of the beholder and if the if the playwright is the artist then their work is right within their frame of reference so their interpretation of who we've become is the message somebody else may have a different rotation we may agree with it but the role of the playwright is the same as it is with a poet or a painter or a sculptor of today they're not involved in the shows they are to sit back and observe us and provide their criticism of who we are and when I say criticism I don't necessarily mean they're being negative about us sometimes they show us in our best moments they show us in our best light and those are works of art as well all right when we talk about theater as we have so many times in these videos as an art form we talk about a collaborative art form we talk about an art form where people come from the world of paint and dance and musical composition and writing poetry and all of these things and they put their work into a greater effort but of all these people of the the actor and the producer and the playwright and the designer and the technicians and the craftspeople who in the theatre which you consider to be the most independent who is the most independent of the theatrical production would it be the playwright the producer the director the actor or someone else I think you know the answer to that the answer obviously the playwright the playwright is the most independent artist involved in the production why because it's the only artist involved in theatrical production that does not have to consult with anybody else that playwright can write that script regardless of how anybody else feels about it regardless of whether people like it or not or agree with it or not it's their work just like a painting just like a sculptor they're the only artist in theatre that doesn't have to consult compromise collaborate with anybody else so in that regard we have a say and that is that individuality is the playwright's by word individuality is the playwright's by word the playwright is the only artist the only individual artist who worked solely on his or her own in the entire theatrical production