About the Book:

The Ancient Comedians and What They Have to Say to Contemporary Playwrights is a text by playwright and scholar Clem Martini that explores the strategies used by the innovators who navigated the terrain thousands of years ago and made their mark on the craft.

Nobody invented a sense of humour; that’s inherent. People have always laughed, joked, and shared comic stories. What the ancient Greeks and Romans did, however, was develop ways to express that comic sensibility in the theatre. Useful for those writing comedy for the theatre today, The Ancient Comedians explores the strategies used by the innovators who navigated the terrain thousands of years ago and made their mark on the craft.

About the Author:

Clem Martini is an award-winning Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist. He has over thirty plays, and ten books of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, including A Three Martini Lunch, which was a nominee for the Governor General's Literary Award in Drama (Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize). His texts on playwriting, The Blunt Playwright, The Greek Playwright, and The Ancient Comedians are employed in universities and colleges across the country. In addition to writing, he is the Chair of Drama in the School of Creative and Performing Arts at the University of Calgary.