'In this short Currency title, a collection of seven essays or “thoughts” on playmaking, Chris Mead states in his introduction that he is offering a ruminative alternative to “how-to” playwriting guides that err toward the reductive, the formulaic, and the conservative. “The following essays,” he explains, “are an attempt to chart a course between the chaos of competing theories and divergent practices, and oversimplifications of some how-to guides” (xiv).'(Introduction)