1. Dialogue and Stage Directions
How to Read a Play
Dialogue and Stage Directions

2. Reading a Play
When you read a play, you use your imagination to picture what is happening onstage.
You can design and stage the play in your mind by gathering information from the
dialogue
stage directions

3. To be, or not to be, that is the question.
Dialogue
Dialogue is the words that the characters in a play speak.
Dialogue helps reveal
what a character’s personality is like
what a character is thinking
© clipart.com
To be, or not to be, that is the question.

4. Stage Directions Stage directions can describe the setting
characters’ appearances, personalities, thoughts, and movements
Stage directions are usually in italics and enclosed in parentheses or brackets.

5. Stage Directions Stage directions help readers
understand what the characters are feeling
Julie (wearily). Here we go again.
Julie (cheerfully). Here we go again!
see what actions are taking place onstage
[Grabbing his keys, he turns and jumps back when he sees Ed lurking in the doorway.]
know when the mood changes onstage
[A bell tolls as the lights dim and fade out, except for the light upon Hannah, who stares blankly at the telegram in her hand.]

6. How to Read a Play Step 1: Preview the play.
Read through the cast of characters.
Note the setting.
Read the stage directions that set the opening scene.
Step 2: As you read, pay attention to dialogue and stage directions that reveal characters’ feelings and actions and a scene’s mood.

7. How to Read a Play
Step 3: Read with the mindset of the play’s director or designer. Ask yourself the following questions:
What does the set look like?
What are the characters wearing?
What background sounds do you hear?
How does the lighting affect a scene’s mood?

8. Let’s Practice
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson tells how Annie Sullivan began to teach Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf, by using sign language to spell words in Helen’s palm.
Time: The 1880s
Place: In and around the Keller homestead in Tuscumbia, Alabama
Characters: Helen Keller—approximately six-and-a-half years old Annie Sullivan—Helen’s governess, who received operations to improve her eyesight and then graduated from the Perkins Institute for the Blind
Scene: Annie’s room in the Keller house in the evening; Annie is at a desk writing a letter by lamplight; Helen is tucking her doll into the bottom drawer of Annie’s dresser.

9. Let’s Practice
Annie mutters each word as she writes her letter; slowly, her eyes close to and almost touching the page, to follow with difficulty her penwork.
Annie. “. . . And, nobody, here, has, attempted, to, control, her. The, greatest, problem, I, have, is, how, to, discipline, her, without, breaking, her, spirit.” (Resolute voice) “But, I, shall, insist, on, reasonable, obedience, from, the, start—” (At which point Helen, groping about on the desk, knocks over the inkwell. Annie jumps up, rescues her letter, rights the inkwell, grabs a towel to stem the spillage, and then wipes at Helen’s hands; Helen as always pulls free, but not until Annie first gets three letters into her palm.) Ink. (Helen is enough interested in and puzzled by this spelling that she proffers her hand again, so Annie spells and impassively dunks it back in the spillage.) Ink. It has a name from The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
From The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. Copyright © 1956, 1957 by William Gibson; copyright © 1959, 1969 by Tamarack Productions, Ltd., and George S. Klein and Leo Garel as trustees under three separate deeds of trust; copyright renewed © 1977 by William Gibson. Reprinted by permission of the author.

10. On Your Own
Annie Sullivan is leaving Boston to become a teacher for Helen Keller. Girls from the Perkins Institution for the Blind have just told her goodbye. Annie is remembering a scene from her past.
Time: The 1880s
Place: The Perkins Institution for the Blind, in Boston.
Characters: Annie Sullivan Boy’s voice—Jimmie, Annie’s younger brother Man’s voice—administrator of a state poorhouse

11. On Your Own
[. . . Annie is left alone on her knees with the doll in her lap. She reaches for her suitcase, and by a subtle change in the color of the light, we go with her thoughts into another time. We hear a boy’s voice whispering; perhaps we see shadowy intimations of these speakers in the background.]
Boy’s Voice. Where we goin’, Annie?
Annie (in dread). Jimmie.
Boy’s Voice. Where we goin’?
Annie. I said—I’m takin’ care of you—
Boy’s Voice. Forever and ever?
Man’s Voice (impersonal). Annie Sullivan, aged nine, virtually blind. James Sullivan, aged seven— What’s the matter with your leg, Sonny?
Annie. Forever and ever.
Man’s Voice. Can’t he walk without that crutch? (Annie shakes her head and does not stop shaking it.) Girl goes to the women’s ward. Boy to the men’s.
Boy’s Voice (in terror). Annie! Annie, don’t let them take me—Annie!
from The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
From The Miracle Worker by William Gibson. Copyright © 1956, 1957 by William Gibson; copyright © 1959, 1969 by Tamarack Productions, Ltd., and George S. Klein and Leo Garel as trustees under three separate deeds of trust; copyright renewed © 1977 by William Gibson. Reprinted by permission of the author.

12. The End