The document provides an overview of how to approach reading a play script. It discusses some key elements to look for in a script like the title, characters, and stage directions to understand the world of the play. It also contrasts reading a play script to seeing a live performance, as the reader must imagine and fill in many visual details left unspecified in the text. The article then discusses different genres of plays like tragedy and comedy and their defining conventions to help readers analyze and understand plays from different traditions.

1. How to Read a Play
How to See a Play

2. Reading vs. Seeing
When you read a baseball box score, you can understand
everything that happened in the game, but it’s not the
same as watching it unfold live in front of you!

3. Reading vs. Seeing
A blueprint contains all of the instructions you need to
create and understand a building, but it does not give you
the same experience as walking around inside it.

4. How Do You Approach A Script?
To Look for CLUES, start here:
• Title
• Cast of Characters
• Opening Stage Directions
• What characters say about
themselves
• What characters say about
each other

5. An Excerpt from “The Heart of Darkness”
By Joseph Conrad
. . . Who was not his friend who had heard him speak once?' she was
saying. 'He drew men towards him by what was best in them.' She looked
at me with intensity. 'It is the gift of the great,' she went on, and
the sound of her low voice seemed to have the accompaniment of all
the other sounds, full of mystery, desolation, and sorrow, I had ever
heard--the ripple of the river, the soughing of the trees swayed by
the wind, the murmurs of the crowds, the faint ring of incomprehensible
words cried from afar, the whisper of a voice speaking from beyond the
threshold of an eternal darkness. 'But you have heard him! You know!'
she cried.
When you read a novel, the author fills in most of the details
for you, telling you what characters and locations look like,
how the people sound, and even what they’re thinking.

6. Opening Scene from Neil LaBute’s The
Shape of Things
(The Museum. Silence. Darkness.)
(Large white box of a room. Wooden floor polished to a high shine. Several hallways feed off in different
directions.)
(A young woman stands near a stretch of velvet rope. She has a can in one hand and stares up at an enormous
human sculpture. After a moment, a young man [in uniform] steps across the barrier and approaches her.)
ADAM: … you’ve stepped over the line. Miss/
Umm, you stepped over…
EVELYN: I know. / It’s “Ms.”
ADAM: Okay, sorry, Ms, but, ahh…
EVELYN: I meant to. / Step over…
ADAM: What?/ Yeah, I figured you did. I mean, the way you did it and all, kinda deliberate like. / You’re not
supposed to do that.
EVELYN: I know. / That’s why I tried it…
ADAM: Why?
When you read a script, you have to fill in most
EVELYN: …to see what would happen. of the details yourself – these are decisions that
ADAM: Oh. Well… me, I s’pose. the actors and director must make.
EVELYN: “Me?”
ADAM: No, I mean, I’m what happens, I guess. I have to to walk over, like I’ve done, and ask you to take a step
back. Could you, please?/ Step back?
EVELYN: And if someone doesn’t?/ What then?
ADAM: …you’re not going to step back?

7. What do you need to have Theatre
• Actors
• Audience
• An understanding of the ephemeral and
immediate
• Conflict (action)
• A Heightened Vision (intense and
concentrated version of the world)
• A sense of theatrical time

8. Visit to a Small Planet
According the article we read,
each play is its own distinct
world with its own distinct
rules. The rules of the play do
not have to match the rules of
the real world that we live in
day to day.
Different directors may
created different worlds for
the same script. There is no
right answer.
Following, you’ll see five
different approaches to A
Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Each director asked some of
the same questions you read
in this article. What do you
see about their answers?

9. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

10. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

11. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

12. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

13. A Midsummer Night’s Dream

14. One Play Five Designs
1 Play
5 Planets

15. So…
How do we begin taking a play from
page to stage?

16. This is from Poetics
Aristotle’s (384-322 B.C.) – one of the most
important
6 Parts of a Play documents in
Western theatre.
In order of importance:
1. Plot
2. Character
3. Thought/Theme
4. Diction/Language
5. Music
6. Spectacle

17. Ingredients to Plot
• Plot
– Exposition (background story – it may be revealed at
any time throughout the play, but it is the events that
occurred before the action of the play)
– Point of Attack (the point where the play begins)
– Inciting Incident (the event that sets the action in
motion)
– Complication (any new element that alters the course
of action)
– Discovery (new information)
– Reversals (when the action takes a radically different
direction)
– Climax (the point of highest conflict)
– Denouement (the resolution)

18. You may have
Plot Structure seen Freytag’s
plot diagram
before…
Climax
Denouement
A story is made up of all the events surrounding a set of
Point of Attack characters. A plot is the specific events from that story
that are chosen for this particular play.

19. Character
• Physical or Biological: external appearance, such as species,
sex, age, color, weight, height, hair color, eye color
• Social: The character’s place in his or her environment,
such as economic status, profession, family, relationships,
and so on
• Psychological: the inner workings of the mind that precede
the action. This element is probably the most important, as
most drama arises from conflicting desires, goals, and
objectives
• Moral/ethical: Moral choices and decisions; values; what
characters are willing to do to get what they want (when
the book says that this is mostly implicit, they mean that
most characters won’t just say, “I value this” or “I believe
this is a moral choice.” We learn by reading and watching.)

20. How do we learn about Characters?
• What does the playwright tell us about the
character in the stage directions?
• What does the character say?
• What do other characters say about the
character?
• What does the character do?

21. Types of Characters
• Protagonist: the character who moves most of the action
forward, often the character who changes the most
• Antagonist: the character who provides the main obstacle
or conflict for the protagonist
• Raisonneur: the character who represents the voice of the
playwright
• Foil: a character who is designed to draw attention to a
specific characteristic of the protagonist either by similarity
or contrast
• Confidant: a character that was part of the Neoclassical
Ideal (more on this later) – they thought it wasn’t realistic
for a person to talk to themselves in a soliloquy, so they
introduced a confidant who was largely someone for the
protagonist to talk to.

22. Thought/Theme
• The basic meaning of the
play – what’s it about and
who is it for?
• Look for clues
– Title
– Dialogue
– Epigram
– Allusion
– Monologues
– Imagery
This whole list is
– Prologue/Epilogue described in your
– Character book… check it out!
– Climax

23. Diction/Language
• The words in the play – the specific words that
are chosen and the way in which they are
arranged and by whom they are said

24. Alexandre-Marie Colin: The Three Witches from "Macbeth"
Music
• Not just literal music, but also the sound,
rhythm and melody of the language. Read the
snippets of text on the next slide out loud to
yourself. How does the music of each line
inform the meaning? Do you learn anything
about the characters? About the planet of the
play?

25. Alexandre-Marie Colin: The Three Witches from "Macbeth"
Music
You common cry of curs! Whose breath I hate
As reek of the rotten fens.
- Coriolanus by William Shakespeare
But Soft! What light through yonder window breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
-Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
My anger is too bridled. And my sadness – there is a cap on it, so it cannot get out.
Lorenzo, who plays the harp, in the dark, you might think. Lorenzo, with kisses like
Mediterranean apples, you might think. But no. It is I: Lorenzo, the unfeeling.
-Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl
Watch me close watch me close now: who-see-thuh-red-card-who-see-thuh-red-
card? I –see-thuh-red-card. Thuh-red-card-is-thuh-winner. Pick-thuh-red-card-
you-pick-uh-winner. Pick-uh-black-card-you-pick-uh-loser. Theres-thuh-loser, yeah,
theres-thuh-black-card, there-thuh-other-lower-and-theres-thuh-red-card, thuh-
winner.
-Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks

26. Spectacle
• All of the visual elements of the production
– Set
– Lights
– Costumes
– Dance
– Movement
– The Actors Themselves
Check out a few great examples of spectacle…

27. Alexandre-Marie Colin: The Three Witches from "Macbeth"
Spectacle
• It is important to Aristotle (and to me too)
that when you read, you keep the spectacle of
the play in your imagination. What do you
see? What do the characters look like? How
is the environment created? What iconic
images can be used as metaphors?

28. Spectacle

29. Spectacle

30. Seeing a Play
• When you SEE a play,
you tend to focus on…
– Spectacle
– Music
– Language
• When you READ a play,
you tend to focus on…
– Plot
– Character
But they all work together to create the
– Idea planet of the play you’re seeing!

31. When does your Theatre Experience
Begin?
• The Theatre itself Some productions begin creating the
planet before the play even begins.
– Program When you go see a play, keep your eyes
open for all the details – someone
– Physical Surroundings worked hard on them!
– Pre-show Announcements

32. Important Ideas to Seeing a Play
• The play’s conventions have to be clear!
– Conventions are the rules of the planet that the
director, designers, actors and audience have to agree
to believe in
• Conventions should be clear (that doesn’t mean that the
production has to let you in on all the rules right from the
beginning, but the fact that you’re going to learn about the
world as you go along is one of the conventions… and that
has to be clear!)
• Conventions should be consistent within themselves
(unveiling rules as you go along is okay, but suddenly
changing the rules for no reason might make the audience
turn against you)
• Conventions should support the plot and the world of the
play (don’t do something just because it’s cool… do it
because it helps tell the story… and if it’s cool… bonus!)

33. What is a Genre?
• Genre
– A French word meaning “category” or “type”
– Oldest and best-know genres are:
• Tragedy
• Comedy

34. Tragedy
• From the Greek word “Tragoidia” meaning
“Goat song” since their original theatre was
part of a religious rite that included singing a
song and sacrificing a goat.
MMAAAAA!!

35. Tragedy
• Considered by Aristotle and many others
throughout history to be the highest form of
theatre
– The protagonist is upper class, superior
– The protagonist is imperfect
• The Greek word hamartia is an archery term meaning “to
aim and miss” – the character tries to do what s/he thinks is
right, but, through some flaw, misses the mark.
– Reversal (peripeteia) – changes of fortune
– Realization (anagnorisis) – change from ignorance to
knowledge, often a realization of the character’s own
fault in bringing about his/her downfall

36. Tragedy
• Considered by Aristotle and many others
throughout history to be the highest form of
theatre
– Pity and Fear – the people of the city see the
misfortunes of the characters and they don’t want
those misfortunes to happen to them
– Catharsis – the audience experiences a release of
tension and purging of the fear and pity and keeping
the city working
– Late point of attack – the plot begins fairly late in the
story, so there is a lot of exposition
– Unity of Place – the action all takes place in one
location

37. Tragedy
• Think about the rules of tragedy as laid out by
Aristotle. Now think about stories from today
that you might consider tragedies. What
ingredients of tragedy have changed? What
ingredients have remained the same?

38. Comedy
• “A play which deals with ordinary life in a
predominantly funny way and then ends
happily.” (22)
• Comedy of situation
• Comedy of character
• Comedy of ideas
Check in with your book for detailed
descriptions of each of these!
And watch out for banana peels!

39. Sidebar: Commedia dell’Arte
• The 1st mention of Commedia dell’Arte was in 1560
• By 1600 there were Commedia troupes touring across
Europe
• The companies of 10-12 people shared responsibilities
and profits… and yes… they allowed women on stage!
• Their performances were largely improvised, but they
were based on set scenarios, outlines and characters
• Actors worked out repetitive comic bits called Lazzi
• The term “slapstick” came from these shows, when they
would use an actual stick to make a slapping sound
during bits of physical violence
CLICK HERE for a modern
• Almost all characters were masked day example of lazzi

40. Sidebar: Commedia dell’Arte
STOCK CHARACTERS –
actors would play the same
type of character in each
scenario. Some of those
common characters were:
• Inamorati - Young lovers
(no masks, Tuscan)
• Capitano - The Captain
(Spaniard)
• Pantalone - The
Merchant (of Venice)
• Dottore - The Doctor
(of Bologna)
• Zanni - The Servants

41. Forms of Comedy
• Farce: largely physical and exaggerated, lots of
slamming doors and running around
• Burlesque: racy, raunchy jokes and variety acts
• Satire: pointing out and
laughing at the absurdity
of social norms
• Domestic Comedy: laughing
at the events of daily life in
the home
• Comedy of Manners:
incongruities that arise from
misdirected adherence to an
accepted code of behavior

42. Melodrama
• “Music Drama”
• Very popular in the 19th Century, especially
among the working classes. The overblown
stories and spectacle as a means of escape
from their dreary lives
• Good and evil are clearly
defined, and (spoiler alert)
good always wins

43. Musical Theatre
• Made in America – musical theatre as we
know it came to be right here in America –
that might be the only form of theatre for
which this is true!
• Emotions so strong, you
just gotta sing and
dance!

44. Genre
• The book gives us a pretty limited list of
genres… what are some other genres you can
think of?
I have no idea what this image
has to do with genre, but it
came up in my Google image
search… so here ya go.