DRAMA NEEDS MORE THAN WORDS
If you are new to playwriting you are about to rethink your approach to writing. Apparently actors or journalists are more likely than novelists and short story writers to make successful playwrights. Playwriting is an extension of acting; novelists have only words on which they tend to concentrate. Journalists too, who are often required to give swift reports in a dramatically entertaining way. Both invent plots and characters, but the manner of developing the story is different.
Novels depend on reflection and description (the TV version of Middlemarch lacked George Eliot’s voice). A play must tell its story through actors and setting.
In a play it is the behaviour of the actors that counts.
Actors are called Actors, not Speakers.
There is more to a play than dialogue.
Warning: you have to ‘love’ your characters, even the baddies; for this reason, autobiographical plays may not work if you are writing about a life-crisis!
STARTING PRINCIPLES
You must master writing a scene before you start on a full-length play.
Technical differences between stage, TV, film and radio, but many common factors.
1. Actors need to know about the characters – their objective and concrete factors e.g. Quasimodo is deformed.
2. The playwright’s goal is to engage the audience to fill in what is left unsaid 2+3 = 5 – boring …. 2+X = 5 – needs involvement to work it out.
3. Plays deal with negotiations – often over space, actual or emotional.
a. ‘Do you love me?’ ‘Yes.’ Spatial response, a move towards or away,
b. plus, facial expression indicates the meaning of the answer.
Don’t write in too many non-verbal cues: the director and actors decide.
STRUCTURE
Two kinds of dramatic structure – character and event
Character Protagonist and his/her over-riding objective – plot determined by obstacles;(Hamlet) Death of a Salesman – Willy Loman
Event Shape comes from outside occurrence – cutting down a cherry orchard, a war (War Horse); a wedding (David Storey, the Contractor: a marquee is erected and in Act 3 taken down).
Obviously the two are intertwined. Kramer Versus Kramer – Basically character but the custody scene is the event.
An object too may be the catalyst. (Handkerchief in Othello)
If in doubt, ask yourself ‘What is this play about?
‘This woman who… ‘(Character) OR ‘A plot to sink a ship’ (event).
CHARACTERS
Number depends on length of play; budget; venue (if known). For One-act, two characters, three better: more combinations possible: A/B; A/C; B/C; A/B/C.
Choose roles that require interaction. Examples: doctors, police, teachers,
landladies, clergy. (Most TV series keyed to JOB.)
Use of phone as off-stage character(s) – becoming a little clichéd! Make this kind of conversation sound credible.
CONFLICTPhysical (struggle, murder); emotional (lovers’ quarrels, disputes over objects etc.); internal (Hamlet – influences all his actions) .
DIALOGUE
Communication: high and low context – ‘Low’ = not known to each other, no shared experience, need to explain in detail
‘High’ – shared background and knowledge; ‘jargon,’ shortcuts-
No need to exchange known facts. Musicians ‘Beethoven’s 5th’
Important to match dialogue to context level.
What does the audience need to know? (cf ‘show, don’t tell’): Example: mother has died – family argue over her piano – mention funeral in passing.
Voice:People respond differently in relation to their role. Be sure of the role(s) they
and the other actors play. (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof – as a son, a husband.)
Basic points: status; education; use correct colloquialisms – vital with
teenagers, foreigners.
Writer task: listen to conversations – on trains, buses, in restaurants, at work, in families, in reality TV shows. READ your dialogue aloud, preferably with an honest critic – does it sound authentic?
People interrupt; don’t listen; don’t end sentences; lose their thread; digress; hesitate, pause; use few adjectives or adverb.
No need to write ‘I’m desperately tired.’ … ‘Can’t wait for bedtime’ – actor can SHOW fatigue.
Don’t overuse phrases don’t stereotype (few black men call each other ‘Bruv.’)
If using dialect don’t write too heavily – there are Scottish actors!
Triggers: A word or phrase that compels response and is often repeated to the
discomfort of one character: ‘You’re asking me to lie’
‘No, to give a different impression’ ‘A false impression, which is a lie.’
Another use of ‘trigger’ is an apparent non-sequitur
‘Doesn’t Nick have one like that?%
