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

PLAYWRITING EXERCISE 2 : What If...? Building
the Foundation of Your Play
The What If...? exercise begins with a single image or sound or physical indicator of a disruption to
construct a series of questions that explore possible choices. A physical indicator of a disruption
could be a cell phone that vibrates and flashes before it rings or a fire alarm that blinks as it sounds.
To begin, consider:
• A single image: a book lies on the ground in a puddle.
• A sound or physical indicator of a disruption: there’s the sound of rain or thunder, or lightning flashes.
Now, begin asking + answering a series of “What If’s...?”
PART 1 To Identify Character
What if the owner of the book is a middle school student?
What if that student is a girl?
What if that student has her final exam tomorrow?
PART 2 To Identify the Dramatic Problem
What if the book is a textbook belonging to a seventh grade student?
What if she read only the first few pages and planned to read the rest that night?
What if it’s already night and the storm has made it too dark to see a dark blue–covered book on the
ground?
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22 ACT II: PLAYWRITING