Play Project: a note about length

Remember that plays come in many sizes and not all plots and characters fit into these spaces easily.

If your play is short consider the following information/advice:

You will need a premise: the organizing theme or idea that defines everything in the play. A good premise will indicate an interesting inciting incident to help you start off your drama with some effective action or conflict, and will carry you through to the end of your play. The things to remember about 10-minute or one act plays is that they are similar to short stories:

• They have a premise
• They have a dramatic situation (setting, characters in action, & a complication)
• They have a beginning, middle, and end
• They have a tight structure (most never change scene or setting)
• They are at most 10 pages long (10-minute plays) or about 15-30 (one-acts).
• There are usually fewer than five characters. Often two or three. But longer one acts can have more.
• The beginning of the play starts at a very early POINT OF ATTACK.
• By the end of the first page or the second the argument or conflict has been presented.
• The play usually has only one conflict and one plot line.
• There is not much exposition. By the first page, exposition has been stated.
• The end of the play falls very close to the climax. Only a few lines are devoted to resolution.
• Most plays deal with the exceptionally brief, but powerful moment in a character's life.

Take ideas from your journal, reading, or handouts, or your own memory & imagination; check the 38 dramatic situations for help (see link page to the side) if you can't think of anything. As you are working from a scenario, use the scenario to plan and plot your play. Remember to include your theme. What's the play about?: love, nature, life, death are the typical themes. There is usually a message about the theme: i.e., what do you want to say about love, nature, life, or death?

Longer plays have more time for character development. They often include more scenes or moments in a character's life. While these are still important scenes (they should be) each scene builds on the previous one to create an effective plot. Usually there is a dark moment just before the end of the first act. Full-length plays are usually about 50 or more pages in length.

Writing the First Draft: Writing Tips

Before you write today, please watch these videos, particularly if you have trouble with these areas when writing. On an index card, indicate ONE tip or useful idea from each video. #6 below is optional and for those of you who still are having trouble with your play script format.

Video #1: Top Tips
Video #2: Status Quo
Video #3: Building a Plot 
Video #4: Tips About Writing Dialogue
Video #5: How to Create Characters
Video #6: Formatting a play script (optional viewing, for those who don't understand the form)

After watching, use the time in lab to write your play draft using your scenario. Please remember to post your response to one of Busch's plays to the forum by tomorrow. At 9:30 some of us are going to Geva. Anyone left behind, please join Ms. Perez in the 3rd floor lab and continue working on your assignment.

HOMEWORK: Forum post. Catch up if you are behind. A list of late homework and assignments is posted below.

Missing Homework

Just a reminder that many of you have been missing homework assignments. Check blog posts regularly (even if you are absent!)

Homework (so far): '
1. Please read the article on Play Development. Identify ONE thing that you think is important for you to learn from this article about workshopping a play. Write this one thing on paper and hand in. Post assigned Oct. 12; due Oct. 19.
2. Please read the chapter handout and answer the questions about scenarios. In your JOURNAL or notebook, begin a "titles" page as illustrated in the chapter. You will be able to use this "titles" page for both Contemporary Writers and Playwriting. (Oct 21 post assigned; due Oct. 23)
3. Please read and watch John Guare's "The Loveliest Afternoon of the Year." Compare the reading to the performance. Would John Guare be pleased with the production? Why or why not?(Oct 23 post assigned; due Oct 25)
4. Use the time in lab today to rewrite your play (or plays). Create a second draft. (Oct 23 post assigned; due Oct. 25/Oct. 26/Nov. 1)
5. Read and write a one-sentence summary of each article and 1 important fact or detail you think is essential or interesting): An article about cross-dressing and theatre,  and pantomime, commedia dell'arte, Charles Busch's Introduction (ix-xix) 
6. Please read any ONE play by Charles Busch in the collection you have. Forum post due Nov. 8.

Coffee House: November 15

November 15, we will be holding a Coffee House reading performance at 7:00 in the Ensemble Theater. Please attend and read. Extra credit available for participants.

Theatrical Genres

Plays are often divided between two major types: comedy and tragedy. Both forms have been recognized for thousands of years, dating back to ancient Greek times. Together they represent the scope of human life.

The following, though, are theatrical styles that can be applied to either the comedy or tragic form.

• Realism
• Romanticism
• Expressionism
• Aburdism
• Epic

Comedy as a genre can be divided into:

sentimental comedy: comedy of ordinary people, centering around ordinary problems, fears, and troubles...but all ends happily in the end. You Can't Take it With You and most of Neil Simon's comedies are sentimental.
Farce: characters are caught in a fast-paced, improbable, often satirical situation or circumstance. Farce is by-and-large physical, having a lot of mistaken identity, exits and entrances that cause confusion, and silly prat-falls or schtick. Moliere's comedies were farces, as is the early work of Alan Aykborn. Vampire Lesbians of Sodom might likely fit this category.
Dark Comedy/Black Comedy: Comedies that poke fun at serious issues. Characters are often grotesque or over-the-top, and situations usually end badly for one or more characters in the play. It's gallows humor. Examples include much of Christopher Durang's work.
Situational Comedies: probably best left to television, this is comedy that revolves around a situation or "plot" more so than focusing on character. It's a humorous situation with stock characters placed in funny or odd situations. Its subject matter usually revolves around safe and commonplace themes.
Satire or Parody: These poke fun. In satire, the object is to poke fun at something serious to show its folly. In parody, the object is to poke fun at a form, fashion, expression, or style.

Tragedy can be divided into:

Drama: plays that are concerned with the search for the meaning of life, or designed to help an audience deal with factors in human life that cause suffering and/or conflict. The general drama is not as "tragic" as the typical tragedy, as it is not always life-threatening. 

 Please note and know these forms. Put them in your notes/journal.

Scenario

Try one of these exercises. Create a scenario for one of these options:

1.  Use the charts you and your group created last class: choose a setting, time period, a secret, a name or two. Create a message to send to the world through this play. Then create!

2. Choose a historical figure and one of the types of comedy. Mash the two things together. Perhaps King Tut is going out on his first date with his sister? or Shakespeare finds himself trapped in an absurdist situation. Pick a historical character, choose a genre and think about the possibilities!

3. Create characters based on old Commedia Dell'Arte or pantomime plays (see below, Oct. 26 post), but update them for today's contemporary audience.

4. Play around with the idea of cross-dressing. Consider the types of comedy. Come up with situations and reasons why a girl dresses like a guy or a guy dresses like a girl.

A scenario, might I remind you, has the following information:

1. A working title (check your titles file)
2. Character list (with names and 1-2 sentence description)
3. Divide your play into breaks. Will this be a full length (2-act play)? Or will it be a long one act? Will it have more than one scene?
4. Write a SUMMARY description of each scene or act. Remember to consider premise, major dramatic questions (MDQ), plot structure: exposition, inciting action, rising action, crisis, dark moment, climax, enlightenment, denouement, resolution, etc., theme, and genre (comedy, tragedy, drama, absurdist, etc.)

Turn in your scenario by end of class today.

HOMEWORK: Please read any ONE play by Charles Busch in the collection you have.You will post a response to the forum by Friday.

Scenario & Vampire Lesbians of Sodom

Please turn in your homework. See previous post for details.

During period 1, we will complete our reading of Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.

In the lab: 

Try one of these exercises. Create a scenario for one of these options:

1.  Use the charts you and your group created last class: choose a setting, time period, a secret, a name or two. Create a message to send to the world through this play. Then create!

2. Choose a historical figure and one of the types of comedy. Mash the two things together. Perhaps King Tut is going out on his first date with his sister? or Shakespeare finds himself trapped in an absurdist situation. Pick a historical character, choose a genre and think about the possibilities!

3. Create characters based on old Commedia Dell'Arte or pantomime plays (see below), but update them for today's contemporary audience.

4. Play around with the idea of cross-dressing. Consider the types of comedy. Come up with situations and reasons why a girl dresses like a guy or a guy dresses like a girl.

A scenario, might I remind you, has the following information:

1. A working title (check your titles file)
2. Character list (with names and 1-2 sentence description)
3. Divide your play into breaks. Will this be a full length (2-act play)? Or will it be a long one act? Will it have more than one scene?
4. Write a SUMMARY description of each scene or act. Remember to consider premise, major dramatic questions (MDQ), plot structure: exposition, inciting action, rising action, crisis, dark moment, climax, enlightenment, denouement, resolution, etc., theme, and genre (comedy, tragedy, drama, absurdist, etc.)

Turn in your scenario by end of class today.

HOMEWORK: Please read any ONE play by Charles Busch in the collection you have.