During one of our last sessions we began to plot the structure of the play; the events our characters must tackle, and how and when to insert humour. This was a difficult task because we needed to do this in order to start writing and generating material, but we only had the basis of our plot and sub-plots. The focus instead shifted to the characters for the purpose of finding what they wanted to achieve, and what qualities we could touch upon to create drama and comedy. This is a notion discussed by Rib Davis:
“Perhaps the starting point is a story idea, and it immediately becomes clear that for the story to work it will have to have a particular sort of character at its centre; then as that character is developed, an element of it suggests a new direction for the plot” (2016, 69).
In order to generate the sequence of events that would unfold, we had to first build upon our characters to develop a sense of direction for them and their own plots that ultimately impacted the central plot. We expanded on each character; their backgrounds, their behaviours, and their sense of identity, to what they wanted to achieve. From here we discussed possible scenario’s and plotlines involving each character that could be put into the script, and now it is a case of testing out these scenario’s in workshops to see what happens. From here we should start to see the basis of our script.
Works Cited:
Davis, R. (2016) Creating Compelling Characters for Film, TV, Theatre and Radio. 2nd Edition. London: Bloomsbury.