Can you please help me come up with ideas for a play I have to write?

Question

One-Act Play

Guidelines
2-3 pages
Max. of 3 primary characters
Use dialogue, narration, setting, etc.

Themes
Love Lost
Learning a Lesson
Overcoming a Physical and/or mental obstacle
A Dream Deferred
Value of Change
Forgiveness

Thanks :)

Answer 1

With no offense at all, I wonder if this is an assignment you'd rather not engage in,,,Hence asking here?

I've been here a long time, and I'll offer this without any detail at all.

DO THIS as if you had just found a copy of a diary you'd kept. Craft this as recollections from REAL Life, even being anonymous in it.

Steven Wolf

Answer 2

Here's an idea I never got too far with:

It's Christmas time in Hell. Satan's trimming the tree with black ornaments, and he's depressed because he's trying to stop drinking, and his servant ("Minion") tries to get him interested in something new -- country music -- by showing him videos from GAC channel.

Satan likes the title of "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", but feels the devil's song was better than Johnny's, and feels the Devil was cheated out of the gold fiddle.

He likes the Faith Hill video to "Cry" (he actually cries while watching it) and decides he must have Faith as his companion for eternity. His servant is trying to trick him into releasing him from Hell, so he convinces Satan that he can get Faith, but only if he becomes mortal for 24 hours, and he must win her away from Tim McGraw without Satanic powers. Satan thinks he's a shoo-in, since he believes McGraw is the worst country singer who ever lived, and that he sings better than that, himself, and his singing will get Faith away from Tim.

Satan agrees to Minion's deal, and they go to Nashville. Unfortunately, they end up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where the servant is originally from, but Minion convinces him that they're in Nashville and parks him at a local motel while he goes to a nearby country-music-karaoke bar to find two locals who resemble Faith and Tim (Satan won't be too bright when he's mortal).

At the bar, the servant tells the mostly lousy singers that he's going to bring an executive from Epic Records in Nashville to the bar later, and that the guy is looking for two singers who look and sound enough like Faith Hill and Tim McGraw to star in a tribute show featuring dances by Twyla Tharp that will tour the country, and possibly Europe, and to call their friends.

Satan's trying to get the girl that passes for Faith, and she (and everybody else at the bar) is trying to please him, thinking they're getting a chance at stardom. Satan sings, not well, but naturally gets a good response, and gets angry when he doesn't get that gold fiddle.

That's the rough idea. Satan eventually finds himself in country music and chooses to remain mortal at the end. All the above story could be told in the bar and would only require the actors (it would be better if they're bad singers actually trying to be good), a couple of tables, some chairs, and a cheap karaoke machine that doesn't have a feature where you can change the key.

Working title: "Satan's Country Christmas"