Before We Start, Remember to Have Fun! Playwriting Is Really Just Telling A Story. Don’t try to make the audience have your opinion. Plays are best when the audience makes their own message out of the play. at first, run with your ideas Write to read Revise and criticize when the play is written.

1. Don’t Get Stressed Out! You will just be writing down a conversation between characters Don’t say, “I can’t think of anything to write.” Instead writing some great new story change one that you know. Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead (Hamlet) Wicked (The Wizard of OZ) 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew) Space Balls (Star Wars)

2. Make your play realistic but not exactly the same as ‘real life.’ don’t just write down everything you said in a day, and call it a play. – instead put your experience into a new situation – use your imagination

3. Don’t change the type of play you are writing half way through. If the play is magical, keep it that way through the whole play. If your play is realistic, don’t have a magical ending. Harry Potter (Follows the rules) Indiana Jones 4 (Does not follow rules)

4. Make your characters choose! Have characters CHOOSE. – not “Should I rescue my child from a burning building or have another chocolate shake?” – but “Since I can carry only one child out of the fire, which one of my two children should I rescue?” The Dark Knight

5. You have to have a conflict! create a difficult situation – but “To do what is right, I must disobey my father.” (Mulan in Mulan)

6. Speak in realistic language! imitate but don’t copy real language Remember to write to read!

Flash Play Assignment A FLASH PLAY is a one page long play between two characters. Your assignment is to write a FLASH PLAY in class today. You will choose a story you know, and rewrite the ending. Example: You could rewrite the ending of Romeo and Juliet so that neither of them died and they lived happily ever after. Your FLASH PLAY could be a 2 page long conversation that the two of them have sipping smoothies on a Mexican Beach.