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The Architecture of Drama: Plot, Character, Theme, Genre, and Style. By David Letwin, Joe Stockdale, and Robin Stockdale. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2008; pp. xxiv + 184. $40.00 paper.
The Architecture of Drama outlines a basic framework for how drama functions both onstage and in film. The authors, David Letwin, Joe Stockdale, and Robin Stockdale, define architecture in the prologue as "any created form," and assert that their use of the word implies "that drama has method and that there is a design to its creation" (xiii, emphasis in original). The writers intend their text for both professors and practitioners. While the book offers little that may be considered groundbreaking for script analysis, the authors have written a pragmatic and efficient text that concisely covers a broad range of material and provides readers with a foundation in the basics of Western dramatic structure.
Letwin, Stockdale, and Stockdale organize the text in a logical and effective manner, identifying five elements of dramatic architecture-plot, character, theme, genre, and style-and addressing each element in a separate chapter. The chapter on plot is the strongest and most thorough in the book. The authors handle each element of plot piecemeal and provide numerous examples...