Is the extraordinary worldwide success of Mark Ravenhill's Shopping and Fucking part of a passing trend in playwriting or will it stand the test of time? Is John Osborne's Look Back in Anger really the seminal work it's cracked up to be or should we be looking down other avenues to trace the antecedents of theatre today? State of Play is a forum for theatre practitioners to write about their work. This first issue begins with a wide-ranging guide to the major movements in theatre of the past forty years by David Edgar, playwright and Professor of Playwriting Studies at Birmingham University, and ends with playwright Phyllis Nagy's thought-provoking and clear-eyed advice to aspiring writers on what they really need to know. Also included are pieces from a selection of today's best playwrights, both new and established, speaking about what it means to be a playwright now: their influences, their subjects and the reasons why they write for the stage.