Playwright Discovery Award Teacher's Guide - The John F. Kennedy ...

FOR THE ARTIST’S NOTEBOOK:
The Building Blocks of a Play
The Root of Character
For a dynamic play, the characters need to be
different from the writer and from each other. A
good starting point may be to observe friends
or strangers in conversation and in action. How
are they different from each other? Just as
important, how are they the same? What sorts
of obstacles might keep us from seeing those
similarities? Their clothing? Their speech? Also
consider how these characters might change
as the situation changes. To begin imagining
well-grounded, believable characters, a writer
conducts research. That research—learning
about the characters and their world—can come
through reading, observing, or thinking about
your own experiences.
The Other Building Blocks of a
Play Are:
The Main Character The person the audience
follows to understand the bulk of the story. This
figure confronts most of the play’s challenges
and conflicts. A successfully crafted Main
Character changes or transforms somehow after
a moment of crisis. It is also possible for a play
to be more ensemble-based and have more
than one main character. However, the major
characters should still change over the course of
the play.
The Dramatic Problem This is the set-up or
question that the Main Character (or characters)
must confront and solve. It should not be easy
for the Main Character to address the problem.
Initially, it may appear easy, but something
should happen along the way to complicate the
problem and create a challenge that will cause
the Main Character to grow and change.
Need or Want This is what the Main Character
(or characters) must have or wishes to attain.
The Need can be tangible (a ride to school,
an A on a test, money to download songs) or
an intangible, emotional want (to be accepted
by a group of kids, to be loved by a parent).
Whatever it is, it must be important to the
character.
The Stakes This tells the character and
audience how important the Dramatic Problem
and Need are and adds great tension to the play
or scene. Another way to think of the stakes
is to ask, “What bad thing will happen to my
character if she or he doesn’t get what she or he
needs?”
The Ticking Clock Time can be used to
create tension in a play by raising the stakes and
intensifying the obstacles. Something must be
completed by a set time, and often something
bad will happen if that deadline is missed.
The What Ifs These are the questions that
writers ask to discover and then weave the
elements of Character, Dramatic Problem, Need,
and the Stakes into a compelling scene or play.
A Beat This is the smallest unit of action in a
play, defined by characters having a particular
objective or intention; a beat shifts when the
character’s intention or attempts to achieve an
objective changes.
A Scene This is a unit of a play and is made up
of beats.
ACT II: PLAYWRITING 19