PLAY IDEA WORKSHEET & VIEWING & READING OUR TOWN

PLAY IDEA WORKSHEET

Due ________________________________________

Your name. _________________________________________           Date. ______________

WORKING TITLE. This should indicate what your play is essentially about. Keep simple and clear. This may change as you write the play, but will help focus your writing at the start.

CENTRAL CHARACTER. Give him or her a first and last name and write a brief description of the character.

CENTRAL CHARACTER’S DOMINANT NEED. Keep it simple. For instance: “to get Alexa to love him,” or “to get her father to treat her as an adult.”

OTHER MAJOR CHARACTER(S). Names, dominant need (one each), and brief description. The dominant need of at least on other character likely is the obstacle/opposition that provides the conflict for the play.

SETTING. Brief description of where the play takes place.

OCCASION. Why are the characters brought together in this setting? One-sentence.

MAJOR CONFLICT AS IT PLAYS OUT IN ACTION. One-sentence. How does the central character struggle against the major obstacle to get what he or she wants? Describe the struggle in terms of the action. 

RESOLUTION. In one sentence, how is the central character’s conflict resolved? How does the conflict come to a head in a climax, a “point of no return”? What is the outcome, the aftermath of the climax?

HOW THE CENTRAL CHARACTER CHANGES BY THE END. Brief statement. How does the central character see the world differently by the end of the play?

DRAMATIC PREMISE. What message are you, the playwright, saying with the play? This may be stated as in dialogue of the script (explicit) or demonstrated in the action (implicit). It should be a brief, simple statement. The play itself is the best expression of the premise, but a written premise will help focus your writing.