Creating Drama from Reality

Drama Queen.

The pink, black and white sign hangs in my classroom.

No, I don't start drama. (Insert sly, snarky, winking face here.)

I teach the art of acting and production to high schoolers. We spend nearly four months perfecting a 30 minute play for competition. I have 59 students in class; approximately 80 students comprise our high school, so...

It's tough finding a script for a cast this large, so for the second year in a row, I've written our script. Last year, I wrote "Ladder, Engine." The play told the story of the 9/11 firefighters and the aftermath their families dealt with.

This year, I'm telling the story of a boy whose body was found in a Nebraska field nearly 30 years ago. The case, dubbed Little Boy Blue, was found on a cold December morning wearing blue footie pajamas.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the script this week, and then it's time for tryouts!

Creating drama comes easily. The structure of a play is easy to follow and since I've coached drama since dinosaurs roamed the earth (I know some kids think this is true), I've developed characters and refined character traits of Alice in Wonderland, several of Shakespeare's star-crossed lovers, and average Janes and Joes.

If you are interested in writing drama, you may want to consider some of these tried - and so far, successful - tips:

1. Create empathy. Establishing a connection with the audience is important. I like to begin in tableau, with almost every character on stage, to create an amazing stage picture AND to develop that sense of empathy between actor and audience.
2. Beef up the tension. What works for me - and I try to create this dual threat on stage through staging elements - is to create two lines of tension and conflict. If you would look at a graph of the first line of conflict, it would be filled with peaks and valleys. Obviously, it keeps the audience guessing, but that wave of emotion helps tip #1 happen. Then, I like to use a secondary character as a means of conflict. Add this line of tension to the graph mentioned above, and you'll see a flat line of sorts. That's not bad, though! It means the tension and conflict is right there, always present, always a problem. Drama NEEDS drama!
3. Use the onion effect. One of my favorite movie lines comes from Shrek when the ogre is talking to Donkey and the convo turns into "I'm like an onion, you have to peel back one layer at a time. Do the same thing with characters. Strip away the outer shell and show the audience what makes the character tick.
4. Develop a timeline. Since the plays I've written follow current events/real-life true crime, I draw a timeline of actual events that can be incorporated into the play. Don't forget to add some pop culture elements. For example, in last year's play, I searched for hit music from 2001, viewed wedding pics from that time to see what trends were in style, and discovered Bratz dolls were popular. These tiny staging elements help solidify the overall effect of the play.
5. Come full circle. I tend to use flashbacks when writing drama. Why? It's an easy way to tie past events to the present. It also becomes an effective tool to use to wrap up the storytelling. In last year's production, the play began with five firemen rushing toward the Twin Towers. The audience heard their panicked conversation before the men entered the Towers. The play ended in the same way: the firemen stormed the stage and went into a freeze before entering the Tower. The circular motion keeps action moving.

If you enjoy theater and can't locate a script that clicks with your cast, why not try to create more drama and write your own production.

Then you, too, can join the Drama Queen ranks.

by LuAnn Schindler.  Read more of her work at http://luannschindler.com.

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3 comments characterization, Conflict, creating conflict, drama, LuAnn Schindler, staging elements, tension, writing a drama

A Fish Tale: Plotting Trouble

I’m at the beach this week and taking a little time to work on plotting. I’ve been wondering about trouble, as in how to make trouble for my protagonist, and then I remembered a fish story.

Many years ago, I was sitting in a lounge chair on the beach, when a boy, fishing in the ocean, pulled on his line and started yelling.

And so his friends came running, and the boy heaved and heaved, and the line bowed and bowed. A crowd started to gather, watching this boy trying to pull in whatever was on the other end of that line.

The line began to drag the boy down the beach. He splashed through the water, running parallel to the shoreline, block after block, always pulling on the line. He looked like the Pied Piper of Hamelin in surfer shorts, with little kids and big kids, moms and dads, old-timers and me, too, following behind him, shouting and asking, “What is it? What could it be?”

Until finally, we saw it, skimming the top of the shallow water—a stingray’s wingspan—and it was huge! The gray behemoth’s barbed tail flashed, and then suddenly, it flicked those wings and with a snap, the line broke. The boy fell on the sand, exhausted.

That was some kind of high drama, and I’ve never forgotten it. And working now on my plot, I’m reminded that if I want good drama, I need bad troubles.

Every story has a protagonist that wants something. The boy on the beach, for example, wanted to bring in the fish on the other end of that line. Lots of kids and adults were fishing at the water’s edge that day, wanting the same thing. But I’ve remembered that particular boy for one reason: he had a whole lot of trouble reaching his goal.

He slipped and slid down that beach, playing out his line, matching wits with the unknown. He hollered to his friends for help. The strain on his face, the tension in his biceps, was visible testament to his refusal to give up! He was absolutely compelling in his quest, and that made his story compelling.

So don’t make it easy for your protagonist to reach his or her goal. Make that protagonist work! Throw in obstacles, ramp up the troubles!

I guarantee you’ll land one whopper of a story.

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5 comments creating tension, drama, plotting, writing craft, writing tips

"It's Ok to Fail"

by: Anne Greenawalt

I am taking a graduate class this summer called Seminar on Teaching English and Language Arts.  I didn’t realize when I signed up for the class that its focus is on drama and performance, two things that have not previously interested me academically or personally. 

photo by Apple's Eyes Studios

But now I find myself in this semi-drama class, doing improv and other theater-minded activities – in front of the class.  In the past, this would have been enough to make me want to drop the class.  

“I'm a writer – I don’t have to speak in front of people, let alone do improv and other potentially embarrassing feats.”  This was my previous mentality.

I'm not entirely sure how or why my mentality on this subject has changed, but I decided to stick with this class and allow it to pull me out of my comfort zone.  That’s the only way I’ll learn anything new.

Today, we played this game with partners: I had to pretend to walk through a door and then say my partner’s name.  She said my name, and then I had to ask a question, and then she had to respond.  We had to go through this five times.  Sounds easy.  But do you suppose I could think of anything interesting to ask?  No.  My mind went blank.  “How are you?” “Where are we?”  Not really the stuff of the Academy Awards.

Afterwards, our teacher asked us to evaluate our performance.  I said I was feeling uncomfortable because I am not used to doing activities like that and I didn’t feel like I was in character.  

Our teacher responded by saying that it doesn’t matter if we don’t complete these activities perfectly.  It doesn’t matter if we think we had a terrible performance. 

What is important is that we can evaluate our performance, look upon it as a learning experience, and know how to make it better in the future.

And I thought, “What a great life lesson.”  Not that I haven’t previously heard that “it’s ok to fail” in multiple different contexts.  But it’s reassuring to hear it again and again, especially when I am so often focused on doing everything perfectly the first time.

This made me think of my writing, and how I'm so hesitant to start new writing projects because I expect my first draft to be perfect and get a little discouraged when it isn’t.  But it doesn’t matter if it’s perfect the first time or not – drafts are like learning experiences.  I can always edit later.  

For more on Anne and her writing: 
www.annegreenawalt.com
@annegreenawalt
annegreenawalt.tumblr.com
 

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Leave a Comment Anne Greenawalt, drama, first draft, performance

Three-Act Structure in Play Writing

Frank Capra said, "I made mistakes in drama. I thought drama was when actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries."

For me, I would hope the tears came because the theme of the play resonated with the audience and not because my drama was dreadful.

The idea of watching a troupe of actors bring my words to life on stage intrigues me. As a high school drama director, finding a quality play that makes a statement and an impact on the audience is important....and difficult. I've tinkered with the dramatic form before, and I've even contemplated adapting a favorite novel for the stage.

But where does a fledgling playwright (like me) begin?

In minimalist form, a play builds around a three-act structure. This doesn't mean a play literally has three acts. Instead, three elements of storytelling have to exist.

1. The two "C's" of drama occur in Act 1. Characters are presented to the audience and the conflict is brought to the forefront.
2. Action escalates in Act 2. Characters take necessary means to get what they want.
3. Success or failure happens in Act 3. Do the characters achieve their goals? Do they get what they are striving for or do they fall flat?

Once a writer outlines the three-act structure, it's time to develop characters, establish a setting and create dialogue that provokes action. Test dialogue validity and pacing by listening to others read your script aloud. You may be surprised at what's missing from the play package! Listening will help you tighten the dialogue and story structure.

Within a play, the "show, don't tell" theory is so important. And since the action plays out on stage, the visual image of your words are illustrated through every move an actor makes.

If playwrights incorporate all these elements into a 20-minute play or a 2-hour drama, they hopefully will have an intense or comedic story that makes a dramatic impact on the audience.

by LuAnn Schindler. Follow LuAnn on Twitter - @luannschindler.com or visit her website http://luannschindler.com .

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Leave a Comment drama, LuAnn Schindler, playwrighting, three-act structure

Visualizing the Drama

by LuAnn Schindler

A local high school asked me to direct their one-act competition play this year. I haven't directed a play in over two years, and since I have so much spare time (I do?) I said yes. Actually, I knew what play I wanted to direct; I thought the characters would be challenging for the students and I knew how I wanted to stage the production.

As a director, your job is to interpret the playwright's words and place that visualization on the stage. You see each character in a unique light and as you share your vision with an actor, you hope that they crawl into that character's skin and become that person on stage. You plot the lighting changes, sound effects and blocking choices to match the picture you've created in your mind.

It is the same when you write. You visualize the characters, see them in a unique light and bring them to life on the page. You establish a sense of place through staging. And, you plot the lighting changes, the sound effects, and blocking choices when you determine who is in a certain scene, where it takes place, and what dialogue is spoken.

Readers do the same thing, too. When I read Michael Crichton's Timeline, I could see certain actors cast in the movie. I could visualize the castle and the clothing from the Renaissance. I knew Nicolas Cage should be in the movie (obviously I wasn't in charge of casting)! Visualizing the drama, whether a novel or a play, creates a bond with the readers.

And it's an important bond that begins in your mind, travels along the page through the plot twists and turns, and ends with the reader.

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Leave a Comment Characters, drama, LuAnn Schindler, visualizing characters