I was having a look at Harold Pinter's bibliography and I noticed that, besides the plays, he had also written "sketches." How do you define a sketch? What is it? And what's the difference from a play?
What's a Sketch?
- Thread starter Eumenides
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I think of a sketch as a short, relatively simple short story, often a "slice of life" type of thing.
There's also comedy sketches or skits, as done on TV and at comedy clubs.
There's also comedy sketches or skits, as done on TV and at comedy clubs.
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I had the impression a "sketch"(theatrical) is to a play as a sketch(drawing) is to a painting, a simpler, freer, less complex object but still related.
I'm with Alleycat. We get a lot of sketches submitted to our ten minute play festival. A sketch starts , runs and ends with no changes to characters and does not tell a story. There is no inciting incident, point of attack or climax. Some are very funny but seldom dramatic.
They are often life without the dull parts cut out.
In our festival we usually send them back with the note that they are sketches and not plays and offer playwrights the opportunity to make them into plays.
Doug
They are often life without the dull parts cut out.
In our festival we usually send them back with the note that they are sketches and not plays and offer playwrights the opportunity to make them into plays.
Doug
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A sketch is a short scene based on a simple idea. For example, the dead parrot sketch in Monty Python. An angry customer is trying to convince the keeper of a pet shop that the parrot he has bought is dead but the shopkeeper does not believe it. The character's backgrounds and motivations do not matter- the scene is based around that one joke, which could not be extended into a full-length play.
Yep. Whereas a 10-minute play has a beginning, a middle and an end. I write 10-minute plays (I have 2 playing in Toronto right now) and a lot of people make the mistake of writing a sketch/skit for a 10-minute play festival.