Elements of a play Without all this stuff, we don’t have a play. Plot. This is the sequence of events in the play. How do things go? Who hates / loves whom? Why is there a problem. Which leads to conflict. Without conflict nothing happens. There has to be a problem.

Elements of a play Think of West Side Story. How would the plot go if Tony, Maria, Riff, Bernardo, Ice, Action, Anita, and all the crew had been happily playing cards the entire time? Where would the plot go? Nowhere. Which brings us to the protagonist. This is the person at the center of the action. This is the person who moves, grows, changes in some way.

Elements of a play A play may have more than one protagonist but it’s a bit tricky to pull off well. Shakespeare did it pretty well with Romeo and Juliet but, let’s face it, Romeo gets all the good lines for most of it.

Elements of a play Enter the antagonist. This is the force or probably, person, that opposes the efforts of the protagonist. Usually the antagonist doesn’t change or grow during the play. In musicals, they often do not sing. Who or what was the antagonist in West Side Story?

Elements of a play So, what happens to the antagonist to make the play go? Well, that’s the conflict. But here’s the great part …

Elements of a play The hero isn’t perfect!! No, I’m not kidding. They have a problem – a weakness, a flaw that means the conflict is going to get to them. Sometimes these flaws are called the Seven Deadly Sins.

Elements of a play The hero isn’t perfect!! So, what are the Seven Deadly Sins? I thought you’d ask. So here they are: AVARICE, ENVY, GLUTTONY, LUST, PRIDE, SLOTH, and WRATH

Elements of a play These sound tricky so let’s take them one at a time: AVARICE Greed. ENVY Is willing to steal, to take. GLUTTONY Eats like a pig on holiday. LUST Enough said. PRIDE sometimes also called hubris. SLOTH Lazy loafer. WRATH Inherent anger leads to action.

Elements of a play Now you can imagine a protagonist with all these would be a pretty hideous person – not someone you would want on stage. So … The protagonist usually only suffers from one or two of them.

Elements of a play Quickly, from West Side Story, from which of these did Tony suffer? AVARICE Greed. ENVY Is willing to steal, to take. GLUTTONY Eats like a pig on holiday. LUST Enough said. PRIDE sometimes also called hubris. SLOTH Lazy loafer. WRATH Anger leads to bad actions.

Elements of a play Well? Which one?

Elements of a play I think we can pretty safely say his was wrath.

Elements of a play So, how the conflict plays out is the plot of the play. At some point it all comes to an end. If not the play is a bit of a flop. This point is called the climax. The peak, the big Kahuna. This is where it all lands.

Elements of a play Usually, after the climax comes the resolution or denouement. This is the sense of peace we, the viewers, get to enjoy after all the conflict. Is it a happy ending? Is it a tragedy? Perhaps the best way to judge is how the play made you feel.

Elements of a play A well-known writer in the 1800s named Gustav Freytag came up with a diagram to help us envision the elements of a play. His diagram follows the development of a tragic plot.