Backwards and Forwards: A Technical Manual for Reading Plays

Backwards and Forwards by David Ball is the most widely assigned script analysis text in acting and directing programs in the United States, and its elegant, practical approach to reading plays has influenced how generations of theatre artists approach dramatic texts. Published in 1983, the book teaches actors, directors, and designers how to read a play not as a piece of literature to be interpreted thematically but as a dynamic, forward-moving event to be experienced and understood in terms of its dramatic action. Ball's central insight — that a play moves forward but can only be understood by reading backwards from each moment to discover what caused it — provides a simple but powerful analytical framework that transforms how practitioners engage with scripts.

The book uses Shakespeare's Hamlet as its primary example, demonstrating each analytical concept through detailed examination of specific moments, scenes, and structural choices in the play. Ball's choice of Hamlet is strategic — it is a play that most readers know well enough to engage with the analysis but one that is complex enough to demonstrate the full range of the analytical tools he presents. By the end of the book, readers have not only learned a new way of reading plays but have also gained a deeper, more dynamic understanding of one of the greatest plays in the English language. The Hamlet examples are so well-chosen and illuminating that many readers report seeing the play in an entirely new light after reading Ball's analysis.

Ball introduces a series of analytical concepts including stasis, intrusion, the heap of circumstances, conflict, the event, and shape that together constitute a complete toolkit for understanding how plays work as dramatic engines. Stasis is the condition of the dramatic world before the play begins — the state of equilibrium that the play's action will disrupt. Intrusion is the event that breaks the stasis and sets the play's action in motion. These concepts are presented with a clarity and simplicity that makes them immediately usable, even by actors and directors with no background in dramatic theory or literary analysis. Ball strips away the academic complexity that often makes script analysis feel like an intellectual exercise divorced from practical theatre-making.

The concept of 'the heap of circumstances' is one of Ball's most useful contributions, referring to the accumulated weight of events, relationships, and conditions that presses upon each moment of the play and makes it dramatically charged. Ball teaches readers to identify how each moment in a play is the product of everything that has preceded it, and how understanding this accumulated pressure reveals the dramatic stakes of each scene, speech, and action. This concept is particularly valuable for actors, who need to understand not just what their character is doing in each moment but why that moment matters — what is at risk, what has been invested, and what the consequences of each choice might be.

Ball's writing style is remarkably concise, direct, and free of academic jargon, making the book accessible to readers at every level of experience and education. The book is quite slim — roughly 100 pages — and can be read in a single sitting, though its ideas reward repeated reading and application. Ball writes with the confidence of a practitioner who has tested his ideas in the rehearsal room rather than the tentative qualification of an academic who is constructing a theoretical argument. Every sentence carries practical weight, and there is no padding or digression — the book teaches you exactly what you need to know and nothing more. This economy of expression is itself a lesson in the kind of clarity and directness that effective theatre-making requires.

Backwards and Forwards is available in paperback from Southern Illinois University Press, typically priced between $10 and $15 for a new copy. Used copies are widely available for under $5, as the book has been continuously in print for over four decades and has been assigned in countless theatre programs. Digital editions are available for Kindle and other e-readers at approximately $8 to $12. The book is one of the best values in all of theatre literature — a slim, affordable volume that teaches a complete, immediately applicable approach to script analysis that will serve the reader throughout their career. At this price point, every actor and director should own a copy.

Backwards and Forwards should be the first book on script analysis that every actor and director reads — its clarity, brevity, and practical applicability make it the ideal foundation upon which to build more sophisticated analytical skills. It is particularly valuable for actors who tend to approach scripts through character psychology alone, as Ball's framework provides a structural context that makes individual character choices more dynamic and dramatically grounded. Directors will find the analytical tools invaluable for understanding the architecture of a play and for making staging choices that serve the play's dramatic movement rather than imposing external concepts upon it. After mastering Ball's approach, supplement it with other analytical methods — including closer attention to language, historical context, and thematic complexity — to develop a comprehensive analytical toolkit.

Read the book once quickly to grasp the overall framework, then reread it slowly with a copy of Hamlet beside you, verifying Ball's analysis against the text and testing whether you agree with his readings. Apply Ball's analytical concepts to the next play you read, identifying the stasis, intrusion, heap of circumstances, and shape before beginning any other preparation work. Practice reading plays backwards — starting from the ending and working scene by scene to the beginning — to discover the chain of causation that drives the dramatic action forward. Use Ball's framework in your first reading of any new script, before consulting critical commentary, directorial concepts, or character analysis, as this will ground your subsequent work in the play's own dramatic logic. Share the book with your scene partners and use Ball's terminology as a shared language for discussing how scenes work, which will make your collaborative work more precise and productive.