Between The Practice and The Pedagogy of Dramatic Writing: Towards A Cohesive Approach to Training The Contemporary Scriptwriter

British theatre is world-renowned for producing remarkable writers, both historically and today. These writers are credited with creating industry-leading work on screen too, particularly for television. However, there has been no substantial critical inquiry into the teaching of dramatic writing in the United Kingdom.

Therefore, scriptwriting pedagogy is, to an extent, uninformed and disassociated from the practice of the working scriptwriter. There is an implied gap between the practice and the pedagogy of dramatic writing. This practice-led inquiry will seek to assess that gap by comparing the actual process of writing a

play or screenplay with the ways we teach students to write them; through examining scriptwriting 'instruction manuals' and approaches to teaching dramatic writing in higher education. The interrogation of the scriptwriting process through the creation of a new work will critically inform my academic research on the

development of a cohesive and bespoke pedagogical approach to writing for performance; either in contrast or in agreement with dramaturgical rulebooks and current learning within a University context