Rewriting

We will be using the lab this morning to rewrite our scripts and prepare (print) copies for our actors (you do not need copies for your fellow writers).

Some advice:

1. You are the writer. Therefore you have complete control over your written script. If you disagree with an actor's ideas or complaints about your script, that's fine. Focus on the material you need or want to change rather than the bickering of non-professionals. Everybody's a critic when it comes to movies and stage plays.
2. Your actor/other writers are your fresh eyes. They may have some good advice about what is not working in the script. You need to be open-minded and trust the revision process. Change those things in your script that you feel will STRENGTHEN your play.
3. Just because something isn't working right now in the script may not be reason enough to change it. A skilled director or actor can find and pull out wonderful things in your script. On the other hand, if the talent isn't there--the talent isn't there. If it's not working with this cast or director, get rid of it.
4. Revise grammar and syntax to make lines comfortable and easy for the actor. Not sure what's wrong? Check with a partner, ask a teacher, or do it yourself (you'll ultimately be responsible for your own writing ability after graduating from high school). Here's a website that may help with grammar problems. You can find thousands of these helpful sites on the web, there are grammar books in the library, you have been taught enough grammar in ELA classes over the years. If you don't know something by now, look it up and learn it! You have the power!
5. Plays utilize realistic speech, but lines of dialogue are NOT real speech. Improve the beauty of your lines by being specific, adding imagery (metaphor, simile, personification, sound imagery with alliteration, assonance, consonance, figurative language), and strong active verbs. Review your diction before making people perform your play. Language is YOUR art, not the actors--they interpret and present the words through body, voice, and movement.
6. Trust your instincts. If you're bored watching your play, rest assured others will be too.
7. Rearrange and combine or cut plot, scenes, characters, lines. Don't be afraid to revise. Save your work (BEFORE) you revise so that if you want to add that scene or character back in the play later, you can. Word processing programs are cool like that.

Use your time in the lab to complete your rewrites. If you don't finish today, please prepare and finish (print as well) for next class as homework.

Oh, by the way, we have a quiz for the course coming up Friday (this is your course's "final exam"--stop complaining). Please be familiar with the following terms/vocabulary/concepts:


Play Vocabulary:

• Premise: a deeply held belief by the playwright which shapes a script.
• From handout: chp. 3 'Structure, Part One: story and plot': 
• Aristotle's six elements of plays: plot, character, diction (dialogue), thought (theme), spectacle, song/music

• Conflict
  Structural Unity: all parts of the plot (exposition, rising action, turning point, climax, resolution, etc.) should work and fit together.
  Inciting Incident: the point of attack, the inciting incident forces the protagonist into the action of the play's plot.
  Major Dramatic Question (MDQ): the hook that keeps an audience interested in a play; a dramatic question that a reader/viewer wants answered.
  Major decision: A decision a character makes in the plot that creates the turning point for their character.
  The three C's: Conflict, crisis, complication: obstacles characters must face for an interesting and dramatic plot.
  Rising action
  The dark moment/crisis: the lowest moment of a character's struggle--when all the world seems lost, the fight unbeatable, the "darkest hour before dawn" -- a stunning reversal of fortune and sense of failure.
  Deus ex machina: a contrived ending. Often one in which the characters did not have a hand in solving. (It is more interesting to see a character deal with their own problems rather than an outside force solving it for them.) literally, a "god from a machine"
  Enlightenment: When the protagonist understands how to defeat the antagonist. A revelation that begins the movement toward a climax.
  Climax
  Catharsis

• Ten minute play format
• One act plays
• Full length plays (2, 3, 4, or 5 act)
• Monologues/Soliloquies
• Cross-dressing and theatrical tradition (blog)
• Generating ideas for plays (from handout & blog)
• Absurdism & Beckett (blog)
• Commedia dell'Arte (blog)
• Farce
• From Handout: 'Structure, Part two: creativity, scenario, & writing'
• The Event: a uniquely significant moment in the character's lives
• Time lock: setting up a time limit or specific deadline characters have to meet in order to spur them into action (for example having a script project due...)
• Place & setting
• Theme
• Scenario: an outline for a writer to identify major/minor characters, plot, and setting used BEFORE writing a script
• Catalyst: the event in the play that causes a character to take action
• Positive Motivation
• Character flaw
• need vs. desire
• Creating credible characters
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Subtext: what is not said in a character's line. The subtext are the subtle details or clues used by the actor to develop their character.
• Beat: a short exchange of dialogue
• Backstory
• A Confidant: a character the protagonist or antagonist can talk with to reveal necessary backstory
• Verisimilitude: the semblance of truth in characters and setting. "a king should act like a king, not a foul-mouthed beggar."