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

FOR THE ARTIST’S NOTEBOOK:
Time on Stage
When writing for the stage, it’s important
to indulge the imagination.
However, a stage production presents
challenges that film and television do not.
In film and television, it’s possible to present
a Thanksgiving table with turkey and all the
trimmings, and two seconds later reveal a
Fourth of July picnic and a porch decorated
with red, white, and blue streamers. Although it
is possible to do this onstage, it requires great
thought, an efficient stage crew, and a bit more
than two seconds to execute the set change. If
such a quick change is necessary for your play,
you have to have it; however, the dramaturg
and director can work with the writer to explore
whether such a change is dramatically necessary
and how to adjust the action so that the
set change isn’t distracting.
Using the character’s dialogue—rather than
stage directions—to tell us how time passes
helps create a seamless flow of action within
the play. This choice also allows the set designer
and director to use more imagination
when designing the show’s look. Rather than
rely on numerous realistic touches as a set
decorator for film or television must, a stage
designer can use a single, sometimes abstract,
element to convey Thanksgiving, the Fourth of
July, or ten years in the future.
48 ACT III: DRAMATURGY