Some newbie questions

There are as many scenes as it takes to tell the story. Given that, remember that you will lose the audience (at least their emotional involvement) for three to five minutes every time you have a scene change.

Another issue is the reason for the scene change - it makes a difference if it is to designate the passage of time or if it to change the set (new location). In a one act play, make sure that the scene changes can be done in less than 20 seconds - preferably less than 15. Velcro costumes are a real pain to deal with so try to make the costume changes as simple as possible. Think of costume changes, set changes and whether you really need the scene change.

My advice is to limit your play to one scene (i.e. no scene changes) if it is less than 30 minutes long. Two or MAYBE three scenes if it is under 60 minutes long and if it is longer consider it a full length play.

Plays are becoming shorter - In Shakespeare's time four or five hours was not uncommon and the play was broken into five acts. (Realize that plays still have the five elements that used to differentiate the acts even if they are two or three act plays.) Now a days plays are two or occasionally three acts - but there are more and more that run without a break (Jeffery Hatcher's new play "Murderers" which runs for an hour and 45 minutes without a break). Most plays written today are also shorter - The Guys, for example, runs just over an hour without intermission and is considered a full length play. My take on it is that the number of acts and the break point is determined by the need for a restroom break for the audience.

The end of a scene is marked with a blackout. Actors can enter and exit in the blackout but the main purpose is NOT to get actors on or off (that is better done through the play itself - some of the best lines ever written are entrance or exit lines). As I said before scene changes are to designate the passage of time - as in "the next morning" or to change the location.

Doug

I'm a newbie playwright, too, having transitioned from screenwriting. Is there a book on play formatting that you can recommend? I'm creating a play for a competition and this is my first effort.

I agree with all Doug B's comments.

I'd also like to point out that how many different scenes will work can vary depending on the style of the production.

If you expect a fully realized, realistic set with walls for indoor scenes or otherwise elaborate and detailed set pieces, and elaborate detailed costume and makeup that need to be changed, then you'll need the length of an intermission to make the changes. Or, just possibly, a proscenium stage with a curtain and a small scene that can be played in front of the curtain while the scene change is happening behind it.

If you're going to trash the stage for some reason and then start the next scene with a clean set, or make major changes in the appearance of the same location, you'll need the length of intermission for the crew to set up the new scene.

So if you look at plays from the later 19th and most of the 20th century that tended to be performed in these kinds of realistic sets, usually there were only one to three locations.

When I directed Dracula, a 1920s play that involves Act I in the drawing room, Act II in a bedroom, and Act II back in the drawing room and then a short scene in a crypt, I started the crypt scene with the actors making their way through the aisle of the audience and then back up onto the stage, which gave the crew time to make the set change on the stage behind a curtain without stopping the action for longer than it took for the actors to run around the building and make their entrance from the back of the house.

Older plays, early 19th century and earlier, tended to have more scenes. But for the most part they weren't, and aren't, produced with detailed sets. Many outdoor scenes that might be played on a bare stage, and even indoor scenes would be indicated with one or two pieces of furniture, etc. Only what's needed for the action of the scene, or maybe one emblematic piece, possibly a hand prop, to indicate the location.

That can also be the approach of more recent plays that take an epic approach. There can be many scenes, possibly taking place in many locations. But none of those locations will be physicalized on stage with as much detail as would be the case in a play with only one or two locations.

Musicals and other nonrealistic plays have often used two-dimensional painted backdrops that can fly in and out . . . IF they're produced in proscenium theatres with sufficient fly space. The set designer will need to take a different approach in a different kind of performance space.

Write the number of scenes you need to tell your story. But keep in mind what kind of spaces you expect your play to be produced in, how much money it might cost to create the physical environment on stage that you envision, and how much time it would cost to change from one environment to another.

Read plays that are similar in style to what you want to write. And go see them in production for ideas about the strategies contemporary directors and designers use to let audiences know when and where each section of the action is taking place.

Mark,
Go to http://www.playwriting101.com/ or
http://www.vcu.edu/arts/playwriting/seminar.html

Try not to be too exact in formatting (follow the "rules", of course, but loosely.
Stage plays are not as rigid as screen plays. Screenwriting is cookie-cutter.

http://www.absolutewrite.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1083428&postcount=6
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^I'd recommend Playwriting 101, The Playwriting Seminars, and Intro to Playwriting.

Also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Act_(theatre)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramatic_structure

http://www.archive.org/details/freytagstechniqu00freyuoft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_act_structure