Secret diary of a playwright
Playwright and lecturer Steve Waters lifts the lid on the life dramatic
The importance of being a failure: why playwrights must suffer rejection
Steve Waters: Failure for playwrights comes via rejection letters, bad reviews and audience walkouts. But when a play hits the spot, there's no feeling like it for both playwright and audience
Short plays: the key to dramatic perfection?
Steve Waters: Festivals such as Cambridge's Hotbed offer the ideal setting for the unfairly underrated dramatic fragment
Bard memories: why Shakespeare's Stratford deserves a second chance
Steve Waters: Stratford-upon-Avon felt like a theme park when I visited as a boy. Thirty years on, though, I can see why Shakespeare's birthplace has greater significance than I first thought
Postcard from Europe: playwriting as an Italian job
Steve Waters: At a conference near Bari, I discovered the humbling differences in theatre culture that exist between Italy and Britain
My dirty secret: I like devised theatre
Steve Waters: It seemed to be doing playwrights like me out of a job – but perhaps the battle between different performance traditions is finally over
'Tis the season … for a playwright's creativity to lie fallow
Steve Waters: After the distractions of the Christmas run-up, Boxing Day gives on to a week of calm renewal. At least in theory
My fight to save Europe – and British theatre
I can't wait for the chance to collaborate with three other playwrights from across the continent. Maybe David Cameron could learn something
The difficulty of making drama out of this winter of discontent
In part five of our Secret diary of a playwright series, Steve Waters wonders why, in these tough economic times, playwrights seem afraid to offer an alternative, more positive vision of the future
Tied to the kitchen sink: should theatre space remain sacred?
In part four of our Secret diary of a playwright series, Steve Waters ponders the notion of theatres as homes and adjusts to the Bush theatre's new venue
Literary fiction and a playwright's secret pen envy
Steve Waters: Few references to contemporary drama make it into the nation's supplements. Where exactly does this aversion come from?
Wait until dark for inspiration to shine
In the second part of our Secret diary of a playwright series Steve Waters bemoans the elusiveness of the Muse, who sometimes visits in the dead of night
Secret diary of a playwright: I'm OK – I think
In the first of a new series, writer Steve Waters reflects on self-help, status anxiety and the perils of collaboration
