Acts, Scenes and Well Made Plays PDF

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Introduction to play analysis first year WDP taught by Ben...

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Acts, Scenes and the Well Made Play! Changing Scenes ~ The Secret Life of Plays ! Scenes are purely a sequence of time limited, place specific, purposeful events. The scenes must find beginnings and ends often through entrances, exits or revelations. ! ‘Each scene in a play, like each cell in a body, is an embodiment of that play as a whole’! For a scene to be defined something must change from the action that has occurred before hand, either the entrance or exit of primary character/s or the revelation of new purpose, exposition or revelation. ! ‘For a scene to emerge, larger, profounder and less soluble problems and changes need to occur’. ! The change and transformation of charter can also signify enough change to end a scene. ! This creation of energy is centric to generating momentum and energy within the play. The scene is a situation on the brink of becoming another, a tipping point as such and the resistance to this change determines the scenes duration. Within Stanislavski he identifies this as action and the subdivision of this into ‘units of action’ within pursuit of a specific objective. ! The more even the balance of power the harder to realise an objective, resulting in more subtext and a longer scene. ! Lecture Notes ! ‘The form of the play is just as responsible for communicating the critical position of the content of the action, serving as a structural subtext ~ David Lane Contemporary British Drama. Story ~ Full sequence of events ! Plot ~ Presentation of events revealed by the dramatics ! Emplotment ~ Point of attack ! Acts in Late 19th Century ! ~ 5 Acts - Grand Tragedy or Well Made Play! ~ 4 Acts - Drawing Room comedy or problem play! ~ 3 Acts - Farce ! ~ 2 Acts - Mirroring Structure e.g. W.S GIlberts play Sweethearts 1874! ~ 1 Act - Brief sketch or Burlesque. ! Hedda Gabler is the closest play we study to the Well Made Play due to its time scheme and classic location. !

Ways of Breaking Down a Play ! ~ Character Journey’s - plotting individuals characters, fortune, power and status ! throughout the play. In addition how the characters perceive their ! status and fortunes within the play. ! ~ French Scene Analysis - Whenever there is an entrance or exit a new scene beings. ! Useful within Hedda due to the long scenes. ! ~ Point of Attack ! ~ Relationship between plots - ‘Hedda Gabler has two or three subplots at work; Heddas ! desire to see Loveborg kill himself beautifully converges ! with Brack’s behind the scenes manipulations of the ! Tesmans financial situation …’! ~ Causality - Types of causality e.g point of attack, number of scenes, number of ! locations, number of characters, number of plots and subplots, linear or ! non, duration of action. These reveal if a play is mainly episodic or climatic. ! ~ Drama online Play Tools - Character graphs and dialogue break down. ! ~ Key Moments - Peaks and troughs of significance and by making these we can map the ! psychological and emotional journeys within the play, as well as if the ! play is building to one or many key moments. ! Navigating between scenes ! Scoring the Scenes ~ Writing the action and objective for each character at the top of ! each unit! Unit Titles ~ Capturing the essential action to add purpose and navigation through a ! longer act. Allowing you to visualise the shape of the play structure.! Shifts ~ A change e.g., subject matter, tactics, new information, realisation and physical ! action. ! Interrogating Play Structure! ~ Linerar or does it use montage?! ~ Is there a rise and fall Pattern? ! ~ Is there a sense of stands being tied together? ! ~ Does it feel satisfyingly closed off at the end or is there incompletion?! ~ Is there a journey if so Is it a discovery or inevitability? ! ~ Are we mostly following the journey of one character?! ~ Does it mainly explore situation? ! ~ It is objective or subjective view point?!

The Well Made Play! The Five features of a well made play possibly divided like this into acts. ! ~ Exposition ! ~ Development and Complication ! ~ Crisis ! ~ Denouement ~ The unravel ! ~ Resolution ~ The good are rewarded and the Evil are punished. ! The Obligatory Scene ~ Scene à faire. A confrontation between two central characters ! surrounding the central dramatic question which divides them. ! Wallis and Shepard ~ included simple action, intrigue, and secrets, points of crisis and ! entanglement and a just conclusion. This helped set a certain form ! of action in stone. ! ~ Gives them the experience of going on a journey. It can be a ! journey full of risks and incidents, but all is safely distanced from ! them not only because they know its really fiction, but also because ! it is all rounded off, satisfactorily done with by the time the lights go ! up at the end. ! Steve Waters ~ This is a result of following of the classicists rulebook. Shakespeare now ! our lodestar was continually found wanting by philosophers and classicist ! from Tate to Dr Johnson, from Voltaire to Bernard Shaw, pronouncing him ! guilty of taking liberties with dramatic form. ! Examples ~ ‘Mrs Dance’s Defence (1900) ! In comparison to Private Lives ‘Hedda Gabler’ appears to be a very well made play, due to the subversion of this structure within Cowards work. However, Coward’s mastery of the well made play is within this subversion and manipulation, but when we consider the other work at the time, including Coward’s Hedda now appears considerably less well made within its fie act structure due to the lack of tangible resolution as it end within a iris of suicide. ! The Fall of the Well Made Play ! The well and drawing room was a love all a theatrical pattern based on a social pattern, essential to its effect was the imaginary presence of a rigid convention of behaviour against which everything would always be measured and judged… but when that convention isn't there this can no longer work. ! Conclusions ! ~ The shape of the play is part of its meaning! ~ Different lengths and patterns of plays have different mean gins in different historical contexts! ~ Where is your extract in relation to the key moments of the play. ! ~ Look for well made patterns even in contemporary plays. ! ~ In naturalistic play writing, the shape of the story can be reinforced by the timing and setting of each act. ! ~ Show you have an even understanding of the entire play ! ~ These shapes can be deceptive. !

~ There are dozens of ways to split a play, which sheds the most light. !...