I want to write a play that will be 70 minutes long. How do I gauge how much dialogue to write for 70m?

Question

I'm new to this and want to start writing plays for competitions - i'm a beginner and don't expect to win but i figure it will start getting me disciplined to write and stick to deadlines. I have no idea how to gauge dialogue to fit with how long something will take to act. How is this done? many thanks to people who have done this!

Answer 1

All the above answers are valid, but as a rule of thumb one page of A4 including dialogue and directions (keep directions to a minimum, you need to allow the director and actors to have input) would be between 40 secs and one minute on average.

Write 70 pages and you won't be far off.

Answer 2

Insight is correct - 40 seconds to a minute is the playing time for a page formatted according to the standard preferred by working actors and directors. Details of the format are at:
http://chdramaworkshop.homestead.com/FormatStagePlay.html

If, however, you use the format you find in published plays from houses such as Samuel French, which are meant for personal reading rather than performance, the playing time is around a minute and a half per page.

All the best in your competitions.

Answer 3

I have no studies behind my answer, but what I do is I write the play as a book, as a novel mostly, so you center first in the story, the characters and the sequence of it. After you have a good story, then you adapt it to theater. As a play, you take the story and cut or expand on what is required for the story to be told on stage and how you want it to be; there you time the dialog and see if you make it fit on the time you have.

Answer 4

You may have to read it out loud which helps in many ways. One, it helps in the situation you have. Two, it helps to see how realistic the dialogue sounds, which is important in plays. Three, it helps you see what direction you are taking in your dialogue when you are stumped. Just read it out loud, and improvise where the dialogue ends, something good might happen. Good Luck!

Answer 5

when you start to write stop and read it like you would like it to be done as in a play and time yourself. when you start getting to get to 60 minutes start winding down the play to the end..talk the words as they would be in the play and at the speed you want them to be spoken. also it depends what your play is about and when to start ending the play.some plays start ending almost at the beginning because they have the main part at the first and try to solve what happen the rest of the way. GOOD LUCK

Answer 6

As someone else said - I'd go for a minute a page.
But obviously if you want some fast paced dialogue then it will be more, slow paced less.
Good luck with it!

Answer 7

each scene , set the pace of the dialogue that you want to have and then record yourself say stuff at that pace, then you will know ure line restriction

Answer 8

Write it and read it out loud. See how long it takes you.