One Act Play–for Creative Writing class only

“Acting–it’s not Plumbing” Read the one act play above and then go to this site: Look through some other one acts and think about how you would like your one act play to go.  You can write it with a partner or by yourself.  We will be working with the drama department to actually act some of your plays out! As soon as you are done with your story/poem based on an unexplained mystery, get started on your one-act play. Guidelines:  The play must be typed. There should be…

• a cover sheet with the play title and the student(s) name(s).
• a setting description (a paragraph that describes where the play takes place, what the stage looks like, what time period it is set in, etc.
• character description (a list of characters with a brief description of them and their personality, etc.)

Format:

• Character names are CAPITALIZED and centered on the page.
• Dialogue is off of the left margin in regular font
• Stage direction  is indented/tab in from left margin and italicized  OR italicized between parenthesis in the middle of dialogue

Remember that this is to be performed on a stage, not as a movie. Make the conflict interesting! Some helpful hints to get you started:  What is character 1’s name? How old is this person? What does this person look like? Describe his/her personality.  What would you say is this person’s most distinctive characteristic? What does this person WANT? What’s the setting?  What is your character doing there? How does he/she feel about the place? What is character 2’s name? (Then, all the questions about character 1 up there) What brings these two characters together?  What keeps the characters on stage?  Why is this moment special?  How do you raise the stakes for the characters and the situation? Who speaks first?

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/41825685[/vimeo]One Act Play 1—

[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/101263239[/vimeo]