Collaborative Play Scene Project

Please follow these guidelines for this project:

1. Choose a partner (there should be an even #, but if you are on your own, please let me know and I'll create one group of 3.

2. Together with your partner, brainstorm settings. Choose one of these settings and describe it on the computer (I suggest using Google Docs for this assignment. Share your file with your partner (and me)).

3. Describe your setting. Use the plays we have read so far as models. No need to get too descriptive. Just enough information to make it interesting. See the example below.

4. Create a character for yourself that would be appropriate for this setting. Your partner should do the same. If you want, it might be more interesting if one of you has a character that fits in the setting, and another one who doesn't.  Describe your character's main physical traits or personality traits.

5. Using David Ives as a model, write a play scene with your partner. Each of you should "play" your character. Create a goal (and keep it secret from your partner). Your character should try to win his/her goal. Keep goals appropriate to the style, tone, and setting.

• You may wish to use a sound device or bell (like David Ives does) and redo a scene or pause it or change it up a bit like "Sure Thing" and "Variations on the Death of Trotsky". 
• You may wish to create "variations" (short scenes like those in Variations on the Death of Trotsky). Pick a historical character and creatively rearrange history. 
•  You may use mistakes of the communication process--take a look back at our sample videos and scenes, including David Ive's play "Arabian Nights". Write a scene where misunderstanding occurs. (See "Who's on First" as a sample).

•  Or creatively come up with your own idea!

6. Your play should be at least 3 pages in length. Do not double-space scripts. Instead, skip 1-line between each speaker. You may use the publishing format for your play script at this point. We will use a different style later in the course.

TIPS: All plays have a short description of setting and indicate the time of day or the season before dialogue begins. It's a good idea to give your character an action in the setting at the beginning of the play.

Example: On stage there is a bookcase with various titles, a four-poster bed, and a wash basin on a dresser. It is May, 1917, just before the Great War. Enter JOHN, drying his face with a towel. He sits on the bed and puts on his shoes. There is a knock on the door. It is PENNY. She enters.

Each character should have a brief one-two sentence description describing the character:

Example: 

John: a 52 year old accountant. He is always dressed in jeans and smokes a lot.
Penny: A nun. She doesn't wear a habit. She can be played by an actress between 20 and 40 years old. 

Please note that the cast list is usually printed just after the title and BEFORE the opening stage directions.

All plays deal with a complicated situation. To create a situation for a story/plot, you need to know the following:

1. Who is appearing in the play? (character)
2. Where is the action taking place (setting)
3. What are the characters doing? (action)

Once these questions are answered, you can complicate the situation by adding a "But...", "suddenly", "when...", or "uh, oh!" sort of statement.

Example: John is in his room when Penny the nun enters and tells him that War has just broken out.
John is cooking dinner in the kitchen when suddenly he is interrupted by Penny, a nun, who has had a vision that John's pancakes are in the shape of the Virgin Mary. But John is an atheist. Etc.

Your play should stay in one setting and be anywhere between 3 and 10 pages in length.

HOMEWORK: Please finish your play draft by the end of class. Turn in what you wrote as participation credit.