author
George Pierce Baker
1866–1935
A pioneering drama teacher who helped shape modern American theater, he is best remembered for turning the study of playwriting into a serious classroom craft. His students included several major 20th-century dramatists, and his ideas on dramatic construction reached far beyond Harvard and Yale.
1 Audiobook
Dramatic Technique
by George Pierce Baker
About the author
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, George Pierce Baker studied at Harvard and spent much of his career teaching there before going on to Yale. He became one of the most influential American teachers of drama at a time when playwriting was only beginning to find a place in university life.
At Harvard, he developed the famous English 47 course and the 47 Workshop, where students learned by writing, revising, and seeing their work tested in performance. That practical approach helped launch or encourage writers including Eugene O’Neill, Philip Barry, Sidney Howard, and S. N. Behrman.
Baker also wrote Dramatic Technique, a widely known guide to the craft of playwriting. Later, he became the first head of Yale’s Department of Drama, extending his influence on American theater education and helping set a model for serious dramatic training in the United States.