Fundamentals Playwriting Presentation
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Transcript of Fundamentals Playwriting Presentation
Playwriting(With Me, Mrs. Cannon)
Since we are learning
about writing
plays, I’ve invited
Shakespeare to be our
special guest.
How now! I am Mrs. Shakespeare. Let us not tarry in our discussion of
playwriting.
She was the best that I could do.
Good luck!
1. Plays are stories. They have characters, the five parts of a story, plot, and dialog.
2. Plays have a
different format than
stories. This way, the
actors, directors, and
stage crew know how to
bring the story to life on stage.
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
Names are written in bold so
they stand out
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
Stage directions
are in italics with brackets
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
This tells actors
when to enter and
exit
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
It tells crew when
to play sound
effects and music, too
Your stage directions must be clear. Otherwise, they will play giddy music in the middle of the
shipwreck! Everything will be ruined!
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
There are no
quotation marks in
the dialog
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
This is because the name
at the beginning of the line
tells us who’s
speaking
Biggest arrow
ever!
For example…
From The Tempest by
William Shakespeare
Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.
[Enter Ariel.]
Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!
Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?
Ariel: To every article.
Dialog is indented like this
Mrs. Shakespeare: If the dialog isn’t indented correctly, everything looks like one giant blob of text. You might miss something important.[Mrs. Shakespeare glares at the quill.]After all, you might have missed the stage directions above if you were just glancing over your script.
Mrs. Shakespeare: If the dialog is indented correctly, it’s easier to see when I’m finished speaking.
[Mrs. Shakespeare lifts quill and studies it
suspiciously.]
Mrs. Shakespeare: Adding spaces between stage directions and dialog can make it easier to read the script, too.
That is all you must know to begin writing your scripts.
If you have questions, let Mrs. Cannon know. I must continue work on my play.