How long does a play need to be?

Question

How many pages, in total, does a written play for drama need to be? It is an action comedy, and I hope for it to be played by a local theater house. Any estimates? I'm thinking around 70 pages or so, but if anyone knows for sure that would be a great help.

Thanks!

Answer 1

As long as you want. You're the playwright. The average timing is about an hour and a half to two with 1 intermisssion. Unless it's a 3 act show

Answer 2

Looking at it from the theatre house's perspective, how long (in terms of time) are the plays that usually play there? They'll probably look at plays of that length to start with.

If you use the kind of formatting found in published plays from houses like Samuel French, each page plays at around a minute and a half. If you use the formatting preferred by most directors and actors (actor's name, stage directions and actor's lines on separate lines on the page) each page runs from between 40 seconds to a minute.

So if the theatres prefer a play of around an hour and a half, you need around 60 pages if you use the (for want of a better title) Samuel French formatting and around 90 pages for the other kind of formatting.

Answer 3

It can be as long as you feel you need to create a dramatic arc for your characters. Talk Radio is a mere 90 minutes while A Moon for the Misbegotten is over 3 hours. Both plays are extremely well-written, and perfect examples that it isn't the quantity of your writing, but the quality.

But I will advise you, if you feel the need to write a 3 hour play, it better well be worth the journey. Otherwise, hecklers will complain that they had to sit through a 3 hour play.

Answer 4

Remember that someone once asked Lincoln how long a man's legs should be.

"Long enough to reach the ground," he said.

I personally know of at least two published, popular plays that run less than fifteen minutes. I also know of published, popular plays that run six hours. Your play needs to be just as long as you need to make it in order to tell your story.

If you worry about the publication or production, you'll be untrue to yourself and your play will suffer. Tell your story, your way, and make it the best you can make it.

Good luck!