Building Your Play: Theory and Practice for the Beginning Playwright

Introduction

 Introduction Before we start, I want to lay out some of the assumptions and premises on which this book is based. There are several playwriting books out there, and each has something different to offer you. What’s this one all about? To begin with, this book is primarily designed for the beginning playwright, somebody who has probably been in a few plays, has worked backstage once or twice, reads plays, and in general loves theater. Perhaps you are in a course at school, or perhaps you saw a production of a play that inspired you, or perhaps it’s something you always wanted to try and are now about to. Therefore, this book will introduce you to some very basic ideas, concepts, and techniques. Think of it as Playwriting 101. However, it can be useful for advanced writers as well—those of you who may already be familiar with some of this material. You may have a command of the ideas and concepts, although you may know them by different terms. In that case, you will find this a great refresher for you; it can be a way to reconnect with some of those elementary steps that we often forget are extremely important. If you’re having second (or third) draft problems, it’s very useful to step back, remind yourself of the basics, and see where you’ve made some elementary mistakes. Think of it as baking a cake. The beginner needs to know the difference between, say, a tablespoon and a teaspoon. The advanced baker knows the difference, but when the cake turns out flat, she needs to go 5XVK,QWURLQGG $0  INTRODUCTION back to the recipe and make sure she’s used the right measure. It’s always smart to begin at the beginning. How Does the Book Work? Some people assume that teaching playwriting is very much like dissecting a frog or analyzing a joke. The problem with that approach is that a living frog or a successful joke depends on everything working right all at the same time. Once you remove the heart, the frog ceases to be a frog and becomes a corpse. Once you stop to explain why a joke is funny, it instantly stops being funny. Similarly, a play only works when all of its parts are unified—every scene, every strategy, every goal, every physical activity and line of dialogue—when all of these components support each other. For instance, in chapter 6, I make the point that a plot is composed of a series of scenes and moments that the writer has chosen for a sound reason. Out of all the possible things that can happen to a character, or that a character might choose to do, the writer has put some things in and left some things out. Why? Because including only the right scenes will illuminate one of the characters the writer is creating. The principle is that we learn who people are because of the things they say and do. Consider two men who want to get rich quickly. One decides to spend his last dollar on a lottery ticket, while the other decides to rob a bank. In each case, the action has defined the person. Therefore, while the chapter is dealing with plot per se, it’s also indirectly dealing with character, with rhythm, with theme, and with a host of other ideas. Like the parts of a frog, they all work together. So, as you proceed, you may find yourself wandering around the trees and forgetting about the forest. But that’s all right. It’s perfectly fine to get lost for a while. After all, that’s what second drafts are for. How Is the Book Arranged? A second assumption that underlies this book is manifest in the arrangement and content of its chapters. It approaches the craft of playwriting from a mixed point of view. On the one hand, 5XVK,QWURLQGG $0  INTRODUCTION there’s quite a bit of dramatic theory involved: defining terms, discussing critical precepts, and generally talking about a play in an abstract sense. These sections are then followed by some very practical “How-to” passages, operating in some ways like a recipe book for making a cake. So you’ll find out as you work your way through it, not just how to write a play, but what exactly it...