playwriting prompts / tips

[chazky]

Hello

I moderate a playwriting workshop at a cafe/bookstore. It is well attended and I usually start things rolling with a prompt. I try to focus on different things such as dialogue etc. I have been running dry lately and I was wondering if you could give me the benefit of your expertise and suggest some prompts and tips. Much appreciated. Chazky

[Joe Calabrese]

check out: http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp?page=1&prompts=365

and http://creativewritingprompts.com/

They both have quite a few to spark your imagination.

[Sara Rachael Hope]

How 'bout "What kind of party do you want to go to?"

[QueenB]

Hello

I moderate a playwriting workshop at a cafe/bookstore. It is well attended and I usually start things rolling with a prompt. I try to focus on different things such as dialogue etc. I have been running dry lately and I was wondering if you could give me the benefit of your expertise and suggest some prompts and tips. Much appreciated. Chazky
Try checking out some books on improvisation. There are some with situations that are great as prompts for short plays or scenes using dialogues. Example: two siblings come home after school and find a large box in their living room. Sibling A wants to open it and Sibling B thinks it's better off left alone. Good for developing conflict, character, and resolution.

[endless rewrite]

Hi

The best guide I have found for my own writing as well as teaching is 'Playwrighting - a practical guide' by Noel Greig. It is full of useful information as well as ideas for individual and group work with lots of practical class exercises. It's published by Routeledge, available on Amazon and is well worth the investment.

Hope this helps!

[dpaterso]

Tripped over these while browsing Wikipedia for some other stuff. [Obviously, as time passes and websites change or vanish, some links may stop working; if you discover this then please PM me to let me know so I can edit this post.]

Playwriting 101 - a playwriting tutorial written by playwright and screenwriter Jon Dorf.
http://www.playwriting101.com/

The Playwriting Seminars - playwriting site written and maintained by Richard Toscan of the Virginia Commonwealth University, USA.
http://www.pubinfo.vcu.edu/artweb/playwriting/seminar.html
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/playwriting/seminar.html

A Google search on stage play format example pdf also yielded a couple of stage play samples, which are useful if only to demonstrate the diversity of the formats you'll find out there!

The following are US and UK stage play guidelines in PDF format from the BBC Writersroom resource (which also has free downloadable templates for MS Word):
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/stageus.pdf
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/scriptsmart/stage.pdf

How to format your submission to the
VSA arts Playwright Discovery
Award
http://www.vsarts.org/Documents/programs/pwd/Example_Format.pdf

Virginia Commonwealth University
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/playwriting/adobeformatpage.pdf

WEST LOS ANGELES COLLEGE
Professor Martin Zurla
WRITING STAGE A PLAY
http://wlac.etudes.fhda.edu/etudes/courses/westla/spring2004/WLAC_THEATER100_ZURLA/downloads/writingstageplay.pdf

General format reference guide courtesy of Triggerstreet.com
http://www.triggerstreet.com/PlayFormat.pdf

Stageplay Guidelines from www.ScriptFrenzy.org

Intro to Playwriting (http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/introtoplaywriting)
How to Format A Stage Play (http://www.scriptfrenzy.org/howtoformatastageplay)

-Derek

[Kassandra]

One of the trully inspiring books to which I return each time I am stuck is IMPRO by Keith Johnstone (Routledge).

It has creative ideas flowing and it sets creative ideas flowing adressing important basic aspects through numerous exercises as well as providing inspiring specific theatre techniques.

Let's us not forget that theater is not just literature. More than anything it must be "theatre". Johnstone has sections on "Status", "Spontaneity", "Narrative Skills", "Masks and Trance". The last one especially is useful for theater writers who often forget that in theater, a mask as well as trance, have been its most ancient devises. Plus good stuff for comedy.

I can't urge you enough! It might give you a totally new direction and material to last you for years.

Let me know if you do follow this through...

Best wishes,

Kassandra

[Ian.Fraser]

As I see the playwright as more of an auteur who should have the characters, dialog and stories at fingertips, ready to use to illustrate whatever worlds the writer chooses to create..

I've always used Film for inspiration for theatre (as a means of absorbing quality unpredictable plots, as well as soaking up great ways to tell complex concepts simply in dialog) - try deliberately watching some good quality films..

Kind of the equivalent of hunting for high quality mince to drop into the sausage machine, so that when the time comes to make sausages, your own that emerge are unique and of a quality above the average :)

So that hunting for 'raw mince' needs to be a constant thing, otherwise average every day life, and a diet of predictable stories (which is what a lot of US film/theatre is) - just isn't going to kickstart the creative engine thoroughly..

I'd recommend hunting down some titles from the Korean cinema - as for quite a long time now, they've seemed to be at the cutting edge of utterly genre-blurring storylines and totally unpredictable stories, with a serious level of expertise in acting/technical..

Titles like Old Boy, Bad Guy, Samaritan Girl, Bungee Jumping Of Their Own, Joint Security Area, Save the Green Planet.. are a good start point..

Or for direct theatre:
Dig out masterpieces, like the Royal Shakespeare Company's filmed version (8.5 hrs!) of 'Life and Times of Nicholas Nickleby' - or soak up Peter Brook's gigantic version of 'The Mahabharata'..
or for a glimpse of what is possible in theatre - from a visual/set perspective, try hunt down source material on Robert Wilson, whose avant garde theatre works are pretty awe-inspiring in terms of creating visual theatre 'moments' - using a variety of theatrical forms and tools, from lighting, through to multiple layers of action and business on a stage by characters..

/my two cents worth :)