David A. Crespy

Dreamwork for Dramatic Writing: Dreamwrighting for Stage and Screen teaches you how to use your dreams, content, form, and structure, to write surprisingly unique new drama for film and stage. It is an exciting departure from traditional linear, dramatic technique, and addresses both playwriting and screenwriting, as the profession is increasingly populated by writers who work in both stage and screen. Developed through 25 years of teaching award-winning playwrights in the University of Missouri's Writing for Performance Program, and based upon the phenomenological research of renowned performance theorist Bert O. States, this book offers a foundational, step-by-step organic guide to non-traditional, non-linear technique that will help writers beat clich d, tired dramatic writing and provides stimulating new exercises to transform their work.

Richard Barr: The Playwright’s Producer is a biography of producer Richard Barr (1917-1989), who worked on Broadway, off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theatre, and off-off-Broadway at the Playwrights Unit. Crespy’s research material includes nearly sixty interviews with actors, directors, designers, stage managers, and fellow producers who worked with Barr; the producer’s personal papers; and Barr’s own unpublished memoirs.

Angels in the American Theater: Patrons, Patronage, and Philanthropy examines the significant roles that theater patrons have played in shaping and developing theater in the United States. Because box office income rarely covers the cost of production, other sources are vital. Angels - financial investors and backers - have a tremendous impact on what happens on stage, often determining with the power and influence of their money what is conceived, produced, and performed. But in spite of their influence, very little has been written about these philanthropists. Composed of sixteen essays and fifteen illustrations, ""Angels in the American Theater"" explores not only how donors became angels, but also their backgrounds, motivations, policies, limitations, support, and successes and failures. Subjects range from millionaires Otto Kahn and the Lewisohn sisters to foundation giants Ford, Rockefeller, Disney, and Clear Channel. The first book to focus on theater philanthropy, ""Angels in the American Theater"" employs both a historical and a chronological format and focuses on individual patrons, foundations, and corporations.