Dramatic Technique

Why can a young playwright borrow from Shakespeare or Ibsen, imitate them brilliantly—and still leave managers and audiences unmoved? George Pierce Baker warns that another dramatist’s finest methods may fit like a friend’s tailor-made clothes.

In this early-twentieth-century guide, Baker treats drama not as a novel spoken aloud, but as an independent art made for the stage and its audience. He asks aspiring playwrights to learn what good plays share across centuries, distinguish those essentials from the habits of a particular age, and resist copying what belongs to another writer alone. The challenge is sharper for novelists: story, character, and dialogue may travel between forms, but theatrical effect demands its own craft. What must a writer understand before a story can truly live onstage?

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