PLAYWRITING This week s play How I Learned to Drive by Paula Voegel How does she use the playwriting elements Think about it What are the major concerns of playwrights Two big questions o What story is being told Content The content what is it about What characters What is the story itself What the story is on a basic level and what is conveyed to the audience o How is the story going to be told Form In chronological order With realistic characters Told in reverse From what point of view Etc These form the foundation of any dramatic text How does creativity strike There are as many approaches to playwriting as there are playwrights Just a few examples o Autobiographical the playwright s own life experiences The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams what you see on stage is his guilt playing out onstage over his sister s lobotomy in real life o Social Political Issues Waiting for Lefty written during the Great Depression written about taxi drivers during the Great Depression The Laramie Project based on the murder of Matthew Shepard in Laramie Wyoming The Crucible by Arthur Miller written during 1950 s McCarthyism but written about Salem witch trials used it as a metaphor for the current time period the Red Scare o Overheard Conversation o Images o Character Story or Line The Clean House people say brilliant things all the time so writers want to capture those brilliant moments Sam Shepard major American playwright hard to choose a specific play written this way because almost all of them are Build on something that s already been created Adaptation Wicked adaptation of a novel Beauty and the Beast Disney adaptations The Color Purple based on the novel o Imagination Playwrights just make stuff up Many plays are combinations of these What are the tools of the playwright World of the Play o System that shapes a play o Understandable and complete Consistency is key o Theatrical conventions depend on the world of the play Character o A vital part of what goes on onstage o Characters drive the pieces o Characters revealed in three ways o What type of character What does the character say What does the character do How does the character relate to other characters What do other characters say or do around that character Psychologically real intense motivations emotions etc Archetype generic personality type stereotype idealized version Creates a set of expectations in the audience s views Can also use this to mess with the audience Conflict o The life blood of theatre o Acting methods based around conflict o Types of Conflict Person vs Person Person vs Self Person vs Nature Person vs Society o Any play can have multiple types of conflicts Dramatic Structure and Plot o The way a playwright reveals information o Three most popular dramatic structures Aristotelian Climactic the most popular 60 70 of plays are this structure based around conflict Is something happening before conflict Does it intensify the conflict Is it part of the resolution Etc o Exposition information the audience needs to get them up to speed in Oedipus Rex information about Oedipus past the plague in Thebes etc o Inciting incident the moment the conflict is revealed in OR when Creon walks from offstage and says they must find the murderer of the former king o Rising Action everything that involves the inciting incident prior to the climax in OR all the avoidance of information to intensify the plot o Climax tied to the resolution in OR when the murderer is discovered Oedipus himself o Falling Action dealing with the repercussions of the resolution o Denouement return to normalcy usually very brief Common analogy Climactic is the male orgasm The female orgasm Things are more fluid A play will have scenes that intensify briefly but no one huge climax similar to waves Books novels sitcoms Each scene has its own little conflict and resolution Pieces messing around with time and chronology Episodic Cyclic No fun metaphors Going around in a circle Start at a point go through the play end up where you started o Ex Plays linked to absurdist movement The Lesson Language o Divided into three Syntax sentence structure ex Alright now you need to concentrate Vs Concentrate Diction word choice Yeah Vs Yes ma am Punctuation Die vs DIE Also think about subtext writing in a way to suggest subtext to the actors Theme o Central message of idea o Everything in the play should connect to the theme o What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn t lived it Edward Albee 2005 o Examples Edward Albee Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf Suzan Lori Parks Topdog Underdog Harold Pinter Birthday Party Anna Deavere Smith Los Angeles Caryl Churchill Top Girls August Wilson Fences Paula Vogel How I Learned to Drive John Patrick Shanley Doubt Interested in more information The American Theatre Wing s Working in the Theatre series Read some plays Noises Off
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