how to write a play?

Answer 1

You should put characters in your play and you should also make sure that everyone knows their part before performing. Try it out and I hope you succeed.

Answer 2

oh goodness.

no, you do not need to worry about lighting, stage trap doors ETC! that's not your problem! that's for the production team to worry about! you can say you want a guy flying through a mist of red and orange and blue lights while stars fall and cows dance. It's not your problem - it's the director's job, and the lighting designers job, etc.

Now that that is cleared up.

I enjoy Erin's answer. Make sure you have something to say. You can have your main character and your plot and your structure, but without something to say it's just going to be another boring story that we're going to walk out on.

Unfortunately, it takes a lot more than just that. You need to know the rules in order to break them. Such as - a villian isn't just someone who is evil. A villian is someone who truely believes that what they are doing is right and good. Your "main character" or who ever the play is about is sometimes never in the story.

aaaand that's getting a little too into it. Sorry. But you get my drift? We all know that playwritings not easy but even after that, it's still not easy. If you *are* a beginner, go ahead and try that rising action, climax, falling action bit with a main character who pushed through the plot. But be sure to continue and go beyond that, because we've all heard that one.

best of luck!

Answer 3

Not to contradict earlier advice, but in my experience, if you worry about every little staging detail, you'll have a much harder time finishing the script.

A play is basically a staged version of a story. Thus, the first thing you will want is a story. If you know the story you are trying to tell, much of the rest of your writing will come much easier. I'll address one way of writing a play, but it is hardly' the only way.

Generally speaking, most plays follow a single main character who, as a result of the events of the play, goes through some sort of change. For example, in "Hamlet," the titular character goes from being unable to take action to being a person ready to act at a moment's notice. If you look at most major plays and movies, you'll be able to identify one major character who goes through some sort of change. This is called a dramatic action.

Having identified your story, you should identify your main character and dramatic action. This is the story you are going to tell.

At this point, you will serve your project well by writing out an outline of your play. What scenes do you need to tell your story? In what order should the scenes occur?

One structure that works fairly well in structuring your play is "platform/tilt/resolution." The platform is the every day world of the main character. This section would allow you to show what the main character is like before she or he goes through their change. In "Lord of the Rings," the platform (for Frodo) would be everything before he realizes he has to go on the quest to destroy the ring.

The tilt is an event that upsets the platform. Basically, this is the same as the inciting incident in literature. Again in "Lord of the Rings," the moment Frodo accepts that he has to go on this quest is the tilt.

The resolution is not necessarily the ending of the play, but the scene where the dramatic action is resolved. It is the moment when the chartacter realizes that she or he has changed. In "Lord of the Rings," one could argue that this is the moment that Frodo realizes that his journey changes him so much that he can no longer live in the Shire and, thus, he chooses to journey out of Middle Earth. One could also argue that this is the moment that the ring is destroyed, breaking its hold on him. I tend to think it is the latter moment, which is part of why "Lord of the Rings" had like nine endings.

I digress.

At any rate, with this understanding of the play's structure written down, you are ready to start writing out scenes. I would encourage you to take a shot at writing each scene without editing it. Just get something onto paper (or into MS Word or whatever program you use) so you can edit it later.

There are some standard formats for play scripts, but you can always reformat your play later. At this stage, you should just write it out in a format that is easy for you. I like to center the name of the character over their dialogue and write the name in CAPS. I also like to put my stage direction in parantheses - though some folks prefer italics.

There are dozens of other ways to approach playwrighting. This one has worked for me (and this is just a bare bones summary of the process I use) and may work for you. Good luck.

Answer 4

First of all, have something to say. Know what you want your play to be about, and the kinds of ideas and questions you want your audience to think about as they leave the theater.

You'll find some great guidelines at this site:
http://www.writerswrite.com/journal/hughes.htm

The best advice there is to read and see a lot of theater.

Answer 5

as well as the script, you have to think about lightning, props, stage direction, entrances left/right or rising through trap doors, special effects, like flashes and bursts of green smoke