Working+Draft

Senior Seminar
 * A Playwright’s Life **

**Ryan Galdo** 11-12-09 Final paper **Acknowledgements**

I would like to thank Mr. Martin for helping guide me on my project and keeping me focused on what must get done. Mr. Martin helped direct which direction my project should go and helped to find better resources. I would also like to credit Mrs. Thornton for her help with the project, providing creative ideas for the show I wanted to write. She helped greatly with the project portion of senior thesis. Part of this idea came from a previous senior seminar project completed by Aaron Strauss who also worked on play writing, whom I'd also like to thank. In addition, many students whom I interviewed aiming to gather information relevant to the play I wrote played a big part in the production of my show. Finally, a huge thanks goes to Dr. Valenza who helped me find great sources of information on the project and who worked hard to make sure that everything would be available for me.

**A Playwright’s Life**

The term starving artist is thrown around so much in our culture that it sometimes loses its meaning and becomes attached to one specific type of group. Contrary to the public’s understanding, there are starving artists in the form of writers as well as visual artists. Writers often have trouble paying the rent or making money through their writing, especially when it comes to writing plays or movies. Looking at success stories isn’t enough though to truly judge what writers must do to make ends meat. Consider what it takes to make a writer truly great, the kinds of techniques they use in their writing, how they develop their conflicts and plots, or even how they tie these things together to show a deeper meaning through their shows. These are the kinds of things that are needed to write powerful scripts, and with them, writers can be noticed and brought out of their “starving” status. In order to be successful in play writing, one must employ different writing techniques and different script styles to be noticed as a strong playwright and make a living through writing. There are a couple different things that must be considered when developing a style to a piece of writing. Play development thrives on three different things, genre, plot, and theme. Each of these components is important to keep in mind when writing and inventing the ideas of a show. Genre is branched off into many different subjects. The range of plays already in existence has genres from horror to comedy to romance. Choosing the genre of the show that is to be written will dictate the plot, character development and themes that can be branched off of it. Musicals, comedies, action adventure, biography, crime/mystery, drama, family, fantasy, horror, documentary, and science fiction are among the possibilities that writers have to choose from. Each of these will not determine the style with which one writes a script, but it sets goals in terms of what the story is supposed to accomplish. Generating a plot for a script will first be pulled from the goals set by the genre chosen. While there is no set way to write a play, basic plot outlines can develop in a number of ways. Often writers will use personal experience to base a plot off of. Using personal experience as a base eases the creative burden on a writer when structuring a play. This is also a great place to start developing characters. A plot and all its situations will have to be researched to gain a significant understanding of the topic to make a play realistic. This is where using personal experience will help writers as they can avoid a large chunk of research and dive right into the writing. Once all the information on a topic is settled or written on paper, the play will begin to take shape. The essence of plot lies in six different things, conflict, the turning point, the climax, common problems, more levels of conflict, and solutions (Clark). Conflict exists between characters, internally with characters, or with society. These conflicts can be brought out through contrasting characters and situations which they are put in. The turning point will often indicate when the conflict of a play will change direction either through a dramatic event or realization. The turning point can be used to either heighten the conflict or diffuse it depending where it is placed in the story’s timeline. The climax can either inspire a turning point, or be inspired by the turning point. It is the height of action in the play, the section that often leaves a lasting impression on an audience. Common problems in a play will be an underlying element that keeps the show interesting throughout. Although minor at first glance, these problems that are thrown against characters in a show will drive the plotline forward, and help to develop the conflicts. More levels of conflict in a show add complexity. With only one main conflict in a show, it will become increasingly boring as the play wears on, and so different conflicts between multiple characters and situation must unfold in order to add flavor to a script. Finally solutions to all of these conflicts and problems must be shown either in a positive or negative way. These solutions must close out the show, but not necessarily resolve all conflicts as plays can end in ambiguity. These elements of plotline will help direct the flow and sequence of events for writers and give them a stronger base for writing. Once the plot and its ideas have been established, it is also important to add themes into the show. This will add layers and literary credibility to the writing. Messages can easily be delivered through the conflicts that the characters undergo to help portray these themes. The themes desired to be shows in plays are completely dependant on the writer and can often play a part in what kind on genre a writer uses to show these themes. When a writer has brought all of these things together, they are able to dive into the creative part of writing a script. Dialogue and actual text of a script is where all these elements of a show come together. Using genre, plot and themes as guidelines, a writer can bring the characters and situations together in the verbal elements of a play that make it interesting. It is vital to be as descriptive with the characters, while keeping them in character with their speech, to show all of the elements of a show together. If all the proper planning for a script has been made, dialogue should usually come easy to a playwright. It is also important to develop a set of stage directions which are often indicated by italics in text. These stage directions explain the characters movement, blocking or subtle motion. Once the stage direction is added in, the rough draft of a script will be complete. Once the basic script is developed it is common for the writer to go get feedback on the drafts and make changes. Possible options in this stage are to add or remove characters or conflicts. Authors can also change dialogue or stage direction if desired, but often times some of these changes can be made in actual production of the script into a show. Even with the greatest scripts following these guidelines, it is still hard for a playwright to make a living. A script alone will not pay the rent until it is sold, and that process takes just as much time and work as writing it. A writer must be able to promote their script and advertise it until a producer will want to use it professionally. Usually a writer will spend months trying just to sell a script and collect on it. Because of this there are many starving artists that will be waiting to turn a profit through their writing. Protecting a script legally is another key area that a playwright must keep in mind. The first step to this is to copyright the script. The writer must also be careful as to who they show the script to at any time before it is sold. Such precautions must be taken so that the script is not stolen and that when it is finally sold, the royalties go solely to the writer. If it isn’t evident enough, being a playwright is no easy lifestyle. The amount of work needed to be put into writing a script is hard enough. Processes and procedures to produce a quality script procure the need for a lot of free time in a writer’s life. Often times, they will need to drop other jobs to take their writing seriously. This cuts seriously into money supply and makes it difficult to juggle between paying the rent and finding effective time to write. Throw this into the mix of all the efforts it takes to write and sell a script, then it becomes obvious that becoming a starving artist isn’t as unusual as it may sound for a writer. In essence, Playwriting can be a wonderful experience to anyone, even if they don’t plan on taking the art seriously and professionally. The craft to developing a script involve a set of guidelines that can truly make a script riveting if using proper techniques. If the script is to be sold then afterward, the commitment of a writer is tested, and will still require a lot of work. This is the basic outline of a playwright’s life in modern society.

**Works Consulted** Bronfeld, Stewart. //Writing for Film and Television//. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-hall, n.d. Print.

Clark, Leroy. //Practical Playwriting//. N.p.: Pearson Education Inc, n.d. Print.

//The comic in Theory & Practice//. New York: Appleton-century-crofts INC, n.d. Print.

"How to Format A Stage Play." //Writer's Resources//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

How to Write Comedy." //eHow//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

Marcus, Sander, Ph.D. "5 Rules For How To Write A Classic One-Liner Joke." //Ezine Articles//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

Matthews, Brander. "How to Write a Play." //Theater Database//. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Oct. 2009. .

Wright, Michael. //Playwriting in Process//. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, n.d. Print.