1. Chapter 6
Playwrighting

2. X enters, looks at y, looks at watch,
X: Sorry I am late. I had to….
Y: Thanks for the check, the children have not..
X: I know (beat) Have you painted?...Sorry.
X sits for a moment, stands and leaves
At door
X: I’ll give the next one on time
exits

3. How does a playwright create a play?
Note your creative process
How do YOU write a play?
What helped? What got in the way?
How was the producer’s pitch different from writing an original work?
Playwrights work in different ways
Some swear by paper and pencil, others by the word processor and some just swear at the white sheet until they think of something to fill it.

4. If you can talk, you can write
Joel Saltzman, Available in library
If you can listen you can read- his book is in audio format
Try saying the lines.
What are things you wish you said in the past?

5. Start with action
Avoid excess exposition, don’t start up with the build up to the accident, start with the accident.
Don’t spend time with small talk, go for the meat
“Darling, I’m seeing someone else”
“I’m pregnant”
You have five months to live
I hit your dog, its dead
Jane slaps Jack
Jack slaps Jane
Start with a big event.

6. You don’t have to explain EVERYTHING
Its okay for the audience to NOT know what is happening all the time
Audiences don’t need to be told “why”, but should be given the chance to see why
Show don’t tell
Actors like to fill in the adverbs, let them if you can
Don’t write screen plays for the stage but you can give actors and directors problems
This scene takes place while building a human pyramid
- Two rats eating cheese…
These two scenes happen at the same time

7. Images
I can't stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.---Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire.
Williams started with the image of a woman under a light bulb in a slip
Use internet to find images
Music
Sound bites

8. Prompts and Provocations
Make it worse
ABC
Limitations
Character A can only say two words per line

9. Plot Structure
Linear
Continuous Linear – Oedipus
Episodic Linear – Glass Menagerie
Simple Plot – Oedipus
Complex plots - Midsummer Night's Dream
Subplots - Midsummer Night's Dream
Cinematic- no chronological – Pulp Fiction, Momento, Traffic
Contextual – Fear and Misery in the Third Reich
Meaning of Life

10. PW Tools Dialogue Stage Directions Characters Actions Explicit
Implicit
Characters
Actions

11. Dialogue
What characters say
What they don’t say

12. Stage Directions How they say it
Diction
Pace, timing etc.

13. Stage Directions Explicit Jack sits down and reads a book Implicit
JB:Mr. Johnson? Welcome to IBM. Pleasure meet you. We will be doing the interview here in my office. Did you bring a copy of your resume?
MJ – Yes, here.
JB: Ah yes. Cisco, great company. You were there a long time, why the change now?

14. Characters What characters say about themselves
What other characters say
What the character does
Stage Directions

15. Actions Action can mean several things
An event that changes the status quo
Something the character does
Something the character does to achieve an objective and overcome an obstacle (Stanislavski style action)
All three can be useful for the playwright

16. Themes and Meaning
Themes is term used to describe an abstract idea that exists outside the play and within it
Meaning is the idea the writer is keenest to communicate to the audience which is expressed through the play’s plot.

17. Scenes are the building blocks to construct a plot
Introduction
Status quo
Inciting incident
Dramatic Question
Rising Action
Crisis, Turning Point
Or Climax
Falling action
Resolution and Conclusion