Playwriting(With Me, Mrs. Cannon)

Since we are learning

about writing

plays, I’ve invited

Shakespeare to be our

special guest.

How now! I am Mrs. Shakespeare. Let us not tarry in our discussion of

playwriting.

She was the best that I could do.

Good luck!

1. Plays are stories. They have characters, the five parts of a story, plot, and dialog.

2. Plays have a

different format than

stories. This way, the

actors, directors, and

stage crew know how to

bring the story to life on stage.

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

Names are written in bold so

they stand out

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

Stage directions

are in italics with brackets

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

This tells actors

when to enter and

exit

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

It tells crew when

to play sound

effects and music, too

Your stage directions must be clear. Otherwise, they will play giddy music in the middle of the

shipwreck! Everything will be ruined!

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

There are no

quotation marks in

the dialog

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

This is because the name

at the beginning of the line

tells us who’s

speaking

Biggest arrow

ever!

For example…

From The Tempest by

William Shakespeare

Prospero: Come away, servant, come. I am ready now. Approach, my Ariel, come.

[Enter Ariel.]

Ariel: All hail, great master! Grave sir, hail!

Prospero: Hast thou, spirit, Perform’d to point the tempest that I bade thee?

Ariel: To every article.

Dialog is indented like this

Mrs. Shakespeare: If the dialog isn’t indented correctly, everything looks like one giant blob of text. You might miss something important.[Mrs. Shakespeare glares at the quill.]After all, you might have missed the stage directions above if you were just glancing over your script.

Mrs. Shakespeare: If the dialog is indented correctly, it’s easier to see when I’m finished speaking.

[Mrs. Shakespeare lifts quill and studies it

suspiciously.]

Mrs. Shakespeare: Adding spaces between stage directions and dialog can make it easier to read the script, too.

That is all you must know to begin writing your scripts.

If you have questions, let Mrs. Cannon know. I must continue work on my play.