TH 210 Chapter 1: Week 1 Reading 2
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How to Read a Play
â—Ź Dramatic action and character journey
â—‹ A) What is the overall action of the play? What is the central conflict, what do the
characters want, what do they do to get it and at what cost? When expressed,
the dramatic action (to exact revenge, to sever a relationship) needs to
encompass all the characters’ pursuits in order to be useful.
â—‹ B) Drama is about change. Sometimes characters are driven by a desire for
change, other times change is forced upon them. Either way, an effective way to
understand a play is to ask, “How, where, and why are the main characters
changed from the beginning to the end of the play?”
â—Ź Stakes and times
â—‹ A) How much does it matter to the characters if they achieve their goals and
attain their objectives? Are we talking a matter of life and death, anticipated
happiness or despair? Is someone’s future at stake—marriage to the villain, loss
of the family farm, unrequited love, financial ruin? A play without high stakes is
sort of like a walk in the park. Nothing wrong with that, but not very exciting
either.
○ B) Generally there’s a direct correlation between an approaching event and
heightening dramatic stakes. What are the deadlines? What are the stakes of
each? How much time transpired over the play?
â—Ź Audience expectation
○ Everyone knows that if you give the audience what they expect, you’ll please
some and bore most. People want to be surprised. What expectations does the
play is build? Are they delayed? Subverted? What big surprises occur? Are they
minor or shocking?
â—Ź Images
â—‹ Not unlike film, theatre is a medium dependent upon strong images. Make a list
of the strongest images in the play: from start to finish. When taken on their own,
how do these images tell the story of the play?
â—Ź Core questions
â—‹ Setting? Where are we? What does it look like? How does it smell? What does it
sound like? What do we hear? Characters? What do they look like? How do they
talk? Are they of the same class? Ethnicity? Gender?
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Document Summary
When expressed, the dramatic action (to exact revenge, to sever a relationship) needs to encompass all the characters" pursuits in order to be useful. Sometimes characters are driven by a desire for change, other times change is forced upon them. Either way, an effective way to understand a play is to ask, how, where, and why are the main characters changed from the beginning to the end of the play? . A play without high stakes is sort of like a walk in the park. Nothing wrong with that, but not very exciting either. B) generally there"s a direct correlation between an approaching event and heightening dramatic stakes. Everyone knows that if you give the audience what they expect, you"ll please some and bore most. Not unlike film, theatre is a medium dependent upon strong images. Make a list of the strongest images in the play: from start to finish.
