Modules 0 & 1 are due by the end of this week. Please use the time in the lab today to work on either module, resubmit any work, and/or begin reading Prometheus Bound.
Notes for Prometheus Bound can be found below this post.
Remember that playwrights are master builders. The following plotting techniques can be useful in creating your own plays and fictional stories (yes, you can even use them in narrative poems!):
Notes for Prometheus Bound can be found below this post.
Remember that playwrights are master builders. The following plotting techniques can be useful in creating your own plays and fictional stories (yes, you can even use them in narrative poems!):
Conflict: You know this one: person v. person; person v. self; person v. society/God; person v. nature. Drama literally means conflict. You've got to have this in each scene or you haven't written a play, but a tableau. Always check your scripts or stories and see if you have an interesting conflict going on in each scene!
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. This usually involves the protagonist making a decision to act.
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 or protagonist.
The three C's: conflict, crisis, complication: obstacles characters must face for an interesting and dramatic plot.
Rising action: your 3 c's create this. Increase tension in a play or scene by increasing the stakes.
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 for your protagonist or character(s).
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" -- Avoid using this at all costs! Greek theater did NOT avoid this technique and some of its plots suffer because of it. We often see the deus ex machina ending in television programs to make sure that next week everything is back to normal.
Enlightenment: When the protagonist understands how to defeat the antagonist. A revelation that begins the movement toward a play or scene's climax.
Climax: the point of highest tension in a play. After the climax, the fates of our characters are determined.
Catharsis (go ahead--look it up...you know you want to!)
The Event: a uniquely significant moment in a character's life.
The Trap: keeping the characters in the setting. Weather works well for this, as does situation. Prometheus Bound does the trap very well, since the protagonist is chained to a mountain and can't escape. But a dramatic trap doesn't have to be physical. It can be psychological: for example: guilt traps us a lot, as does addiction, alcoholism, the love of another character, etc.
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...)
Sarcey's Principle of Offstage Action: We are less likely to consider the plausibility of an event if it occurs offstage or before the play begins (part of our exposition or backstory). Stage what is believable, talk about everything else.HOMEWORK: Complete modules 0 & 1. Read Prometheus Bound and complete the handout on the play.
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