--- product_id: 65672128 title: "Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays" price: "€ 46.58" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 10 url: https://www.desertcart.at/products/65672128-backwards-and-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays store_origin: AT region: Austria --- # Essential for theater pros & creatives 35 years of timeless expertise Script analysis meets playwriting mastery Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays **Price:** € 46.58 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Summary > 🎭 Decode every script like a pro—don’t just read plays, live them! ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays - **How much does it cost?** € 46.58 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.at](https://www.desertcart.at/products/65672128-backwards-and-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Key Features - • **Comprehensive & Succinct:** Dense with actionable insights yet quick to read—ideal for busy professionals. - • **Proven & Trusted Classic:** A best-seller with a 4.6-star rating from 475+ reviews—your creative edge awaits. - • **Cross-Disciplinary Power Tool:** Perfect for directors, actors, screenwriters, and production specialists alike. - • **Master the Craft of Play Analysis:** Unlock playwrights’ secrets with a method refined over 35 years. - • **Backwards Approach, Forward Results:** Revolutionize your script reading by working from the end to the start. ## Overview Backwards and Forwards is a definitive 35-year-old script analysis manual that empowers theater and screen professionals to dissect and interpret plays with precision. Developed by a Guthrie Theater literary director, it offers a unique backwards reading method that enhances understanding of plot, character, and theme. Highly rated and widely recommended, this book is a must-have for directors, actors, playwrights, and screenwriters seeking to elevate their craft. ## Description The best-selling script analysis book for thirty-five years Considered an essential text since its publication thirty-five years ago, this guide for students and practitioners of both theater and literature complements, rather than contradicts or repeats, traditional methods of literary analysis of scripts. Ball developed his method during his work as literary director at the Guthrie Theater, building his guide on the crafts playwrights of every period and style use to make their plays stageworthy. The text is full of tools for students and practitioners to use as they investigate plot, character, theme, exposition, imagery, conflict, theatricality, and the other crucial parts of the superstructure of a play. Also included are guides for discovering what the playwright considers a play’ s most important elements, thus permitting interpretation based on the foundation of the play rather than its details. Using Shakespeare’s Hamlet as illustration, Ball assures a familiar base for clarifying script-reading techniques as well as exemplifying the kinds of misinterpretation readers can fall prey to by ignoring the craft of the playwright. Of immense utility to those who want to put plays on the stage (actors, directors, designers, production specialists) Backwards & Forwards is also a fine playwriting manual because the structures it describes are the primary tools of the playwright. Review: For screenwriters too... - As someone who's done a masters in screenwriting and now in the middle of a PhD, I've read many of the screenwriting manuals out there and this is one of the best. It's a quick but pithy read. Much of what is recommended in this book (in 1983) is simply repeated by many others over the following two decades, but they do it less succinctly. Although targeted at playwrights, most of the content is equally applicable to screenwriting. The basic premise of the book, to work backwards rather than forwards through your script when rethinking/rewriting it, seems simple but is very powerful advice. No apprentice screenwriter sholud be without this in their library. Review: Excellent book! Every director should have this knowledge. - I enjoyed this book very much! It's one of the greatest I've ever read regarding directing. I suggest it to all my friends that already are or wannabe directors. ## Features - New Store Stock ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 486,979 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 64 in Theatre Direction & Production 156 in Playwriting 352 in Acting & Auditioning (Books) | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 475 Reviews | ## Images ![Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61AGs-7CSFL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ For screenwriters too... *by P***G on 26 August 2007* As someone who's done a masters in screenwriting and now in the middle of a PhD, I've read many of the screenwriting manuals out there and this is one of the best. It's a quick but pithy read. Much of what is recommended in this book (in 1983) is simply repeated by many others over the following two decades, but they do it less succinctly. Although targeted at playwrights, most of the content is equally applicable to screenwriting. The basic premise of the book, to work backwards rather than forwards through your script when rethinking/rewriting it, seems simple but is very powerful advice. No apprentice screenwriter sholud be without this in their library. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Excellent book! Every director should have this knowledge. *by A***A on 27 August 2019* I enjoyed this book very much! It's one of the greatest I've ever read regarding directing. I suggest it to all my friends that already are or wannabe directors. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2nd BEST WRITING BOOK *by O***. on 5 January 2021* This is the second best book for playwrights (in conjunction with the latest Jeffries book)! ## Frequently Bought Together - Backwards & Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays - Ghost Light: An Introductory Handbook for Dramaturgy (Theater in the Americas) - Dramaturgy: The Basics --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.at/products/65672128-backwards-and-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays](https://www.desertcart.at/products/65672128-backwards-and-forwards-a-technical-manual-for-reading-plays) --- *Product available on Desertcart Austria* *Store origin: AT* *Last updated: 2026-08-18*