Books by Steve Waters

A guide to the hidden workings of plays and the trade secrets that govern their writing - by the acclaimed playwright Steve Waters. Drawing on a wide range of drama, both historical and modern, Waters takes the reader through the key elements of dramatic writing - scenes, acts, space, time, characters, language and images - to show how a play is more than the sum of its parts, with as much inner vitality as a living organism. Almost uniquely amongst accounts of playwriting, Waters' book looks at the ways in which good plays move their audiences, generating powerful emotional responses that often defy conventional analysis. The Secret Life of Plays is for playwrights at any stage of their career, and will inspire and inform drama students as well as working actors and directors. Most of all it is for anyone who has ever laughed or cried in the theatre - and wants to know why. 'Thrilling... crammed with good, old-fashioned close reading of a diverse range of plays, which means that although Waters does primarily address those who write for the theatre, he does not forget those who like watching and reading it' TLS 'Essential for aspiring playwrights' Whatsonstage.com

Steve Waters explores the state of Britain's education system today, and the notion of 'free schools' run by parents as put forward by the new Coalition government. The play debuted at the Bush Theatre in London, January 2011.

A divisive left-wing leader at the helm of the Labour party. A Conservative prime minister battling with her cabinet. An identity crisis on a national scale. This is Britain 1981.

A fictional account of the events of the 2011 Occupy London protests, which led to the closure of St Paul's Cathedral.

1949. Small town Colorado. A group of regular American students struggle to accept a foreigner in their midst; their unthinking behaviour will have terrible consequences that are to change world history.

The Unthinkable is a play about 'not noticing'; not noticing that one's ideals have become warped; not noticing that being active in party politics is different from being engaged in political activity; not noticing that amassing a personal fortune and professing socialism might be a contradiction in terms; and not noticing that.