Writing_a_play
Author: Admin
Website: http://www.awrrm.com/
Added: Sat, 08 Dec 2007 00:50:30 -0500
Category: General
Views: 162

Writing a Play

Do you like and have a feeling for creative writing? Have you ever thought of writing a play?
Perhaps you've thought that play writing is beyond you...but why not give it a try? It may be easier than you think. Play writing can be done at several levels. It's possible to begin with a very simple approach to writing a play, and then work your way toward more complex play writing.

If you have not tried this type of creative writing, there is a simple way to begin. Simply take a story, perhaps a children's story, that has a plot but not too complicated a story line, and develop the story into a play. Any play simply has a set of characters that have a certain relationship and who are involved in some sort of plot, sometimes simple, sometimes complex. A children's story will have a simple plot and is an easy way to begin working at play writing. Keep in mind that the play must have a beginning, middle and end, or what is called a denoument.

Take for example as a start at play writing that you turn the story of Cinderella into a play.
In the first act, you would introduce the characters in the play, writing from the story of Cinderella. In writing this play, you would introduce Cinderella, the wicked stepsisters and mother in the first scene or two, each speaking as they do in the story. In writing a play you do not include descriptive material in terms of setting a scene, but most demonstrate everything either in the stage setting or the words of the characters. Using a known story as the plot for your first play writing attempt simplifies writing dialogue because it is basically written for you in the story.

In the second act of a play you develop the plot as you continue with your play writing. In this case, the plot involves the appearance of the beautiful fairy who produces the magic carriage which takes Cinderella to the ball (to which the sisters and stepmother have gone) where Cinderella dances with the prince...and then rushes home at midnight as her fairy has instructed her.

The last step in the play writing process is the final act, where the plot is resolved. If you are writing the play from the Cinderella story, the final act will incorporate the prince's arrival on the scene with the shoe which Cinderella dropped. Here again, the dialogue will be dictated by the story itself, making writing this play quite simple. The action also is simple and indicated by the original story, so when you are writing this play you need not
invent any of the plot.

So don't be afraid to try your hand at play writing. Start simply and then create characters and a plot and start on your first original play writing adventure.

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