Art of Dramatic Writing
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Transcript of Art of Dramatic Writing
The art of dramatic writing
Lajos Egri (1946 – 19602)
How to write a play (1942)
Premise
Romeo and Juliet = Great love defies even death
King Lear = Blind trust leads to destruction
Macbeth = Ruthless ambition leads to its own destruction
Othello = Jealousy destroys itself and the object of its love
Tartuffe = He who digs a pit for others falls into it himself
Ghosts = The sins of the fathers are visited on the children
The premise should show the goal, and the characters should be driven to this goal, as Fate did in Greek drama
Premise
Character’s emotion + Conflict (or direction) + Results (the end)
egotism leeds to loss of friends
The premise contains a direction and a movement coming out of a conflict
between the character’s emotion and the around world
Premisefew hints about
The premise isn’t an universal truth
The author must believe in his premise
Do not have two different premises in the same story
You may have a sub-premise
The premise doesn’t come out in one go (you have to work on it)
The premise is a seed and it grows into a plant
The premise do not stand out
physiology
sociology
psychology
Character
Physiology and Sociology round each other and give birth to the Psychology
It is bonded to the othersin a relational system
Character’s 3 dimensions
! Character biography (Stanislavskij)
CharacterThe bone structure
PHYSIOLOGY1. Sex2. Age3. Height and weight4. Colour of hair,
eyes, skin5. Posture6. Appearance: good
looking, over or underweight, clean, neat, pleasant, untidy. Shape of head, face, limbs.
7. Defects: deformities, abnormalities, birthmarks. Diseases.
8. Heredity
SOCIOLOGY1. Class: lover, middle, upper.2. Occupation: type of work, hours of
work, income, condition of work, union or non-union, attitude toward organization, suitability for work.
3. Education: amount, kind of schools, marks, favourite subjects, aptitudes.
4. Home life: parents living, earning power, orphan, parents separated or divorced, parent’s habits, parent’s mental development, parent’s vices, neglect. Character’s marital status.
5. Religion6. Race, nationality.7. Place in community: leader
among friends, clubs, sports.8. Political affiliations.9. Amusements, hobbies: books,
newspapers, magazines he reads.
PSYCHOLOGY1. Sex life moral standards2. Personal premise,
ambition3. Frustrations, chief
disappointments4. Temperament: choleric,
easygoing, pessimistic, optimistic.
5. Attitude toward life: resigned, militant, defeatist
6. Complexes: obsessions, inhibitions, superstitions, phobias.
7. Extrovert, introvert, ambivert
8. Abilities: languages, talents.
9. Qualities: imagination, judgement, taste, poise.
10. I.Q.
Character
You must know all the bone structure’s points but they need not be mentioned
Anything must come from the characters you have chosen to prove your premise
All emotion has physical effects
CharacterCHANGE
A character is in constant change
Life is “change”
A character is the sum total of his physical make-up and the influences his environment exert upon himat that particular moment.
Therefore: A character is always “keeping moving”
CharacterDIALECTAL APPROACH
? (how do we design the movement)
THESIS ANTITHESIS
SYNTHESIS
Character’s evolution-movement has to seems logical to the public. i.e. the character have no other chances.
Things happen not because the dramatist wants, but because the character’s make-up is such that he must fulfils the premise.
CharacterGrowth
changeA character stand revealed
through conflicts
Conflict begin with a decision
The decision is made because of the premise of your play Es. Nora (A Doll’s House) starts as
“singing birds” and end up as a mature woman
This sets in motion another decision, from his adversary
Nora’s evolution: From: submissive, happy-go-lucky, naïve, trustingTo: cynical, independent, adult, bitter, disillusioned
We’ll discuss conflict later on this session
CharacterGrowth
Every character a dramatis presents must have within it the seeds of its future development
Es. Nora (A Doll’s House) in the first lines shows that she is not close with money (tips the porter) and the can breaking a promise (she had some
macaroons)
A Doll’s House: (premise) “Inequality of the sexes in marriage breeds unhappiness”
“Growth” is a character’s reaction to a conflict in which he is involved. A character can grow through making the correct move, as well as the incorrect one – but he
must grow, if he is a real character
CharacterWILLS
Character must have the strength, the stamina, to carry
this fight to its logical conclusion
Every character will find the strength if under the right
circumstances, if the dramatis found the right psychological
moment
There are not weak character
Character
Aristotle said: “Character is subsidiary to action” Error
The situations are inherent in the
character
Character creates plot, not vice versa.
The only thing that comes first before the character is the premise
Es. Checkov has no story to tell, no situation to speak of, but his play are
popular because he permits his characters to reveal themselves and
the time in which they lived.
CharacterPIVOTAL
The one who takes the lead Es. Krogstad in A Doll’s HouseOedipus in Oedipus RexJago in OthelloOrgon in Tartuffe
The one who creates conflict
The one who has an high vital value at stake
He is forced to be like that by circumstances
His growth is not as extensive as that of the others
Each character hai his own premise which clashes with the others
CharacterANTAGONIST
He is as strong as the pivotal character
Es. Helmer in A Doll’s HouseOthello in OthelloClaudio in Hamlet
CharacterORCHESTRATION
The contrasting characters are instruments which work together to give a well-orchestrated composition
You must have a clear idea of how the forces are lined up
Orchestration means managing the movements gradually
love hatetolerance intolerance
indifference annoyance
The character must be commensurate to the movement of the play
ConflictAction
1 2 3 4
large conflict
small conflict = transiction
static jumping slowly rising foreshadowing
Each conflict causes the one after it. Each is more intense than the one before
ConflictAction
attack counterattack
SpendthriftImmoralImmaculatePessimisticRuthlessStupidViolent
FrugalMoralDirty
OptimisticGentleCleverCalm
We see real rising conflict when the antagonists are evenly matched
Conflict is always relative to someone or something
ConflictSTATIC
The character neither does have a strong will nor he knows what he wants
No dialogue, even le cleverest, can move a play if it does not further the conflict
Es. Doll’s HouseConflict
JUMPING
The character neither does have a strong will nor he knows what he wants
Real characters must be given a chance to reveal themselves and we must be given a chance to observe the significant changes which take place in them
virtuous - thwarted – incorrect – improper – disorderly – immoral - villainous
Ok! Es. Doll’s HouseConflict
RISING
Rising conflict is the result of a clear-cut premise and well-orchestrated, three-dimensional characters, among whom unity is strongly established
Drama is not the image of life, but the essence. We must condense.
Es. Doll’s HouseConflict
FORESHADOWING
Conflict must be foreshadowed
Thus we create tension even if there isn’t a real conflict ate the very moment: we are promising conflict
ConflictPOINT OF ATTACK Es. Romeo and Juliet
Filumena Marturano
Why a play starts? Necessity!
A play might start exactly at the point where the conflict will lead up a crisis
A play might start at a point where at least one character has reached a turning point in his life
A play might start with a decision which will precipitate conflict
A good point of attack is where something vital is at stake ate the very beginning of a play
A play starts in the middle, and not under any circumstances, at the beginning
ConflictTRANSITIONS
Constantly changing
In a good play none of the characters is ever immobile
Friendship – disappointmentDisappointment – annoyance
Annoyance – irritationIrritation – angerAnger – assaultAssault – threat
Threat – premeditationPremeditation – murder
The public doesn’t need to record (be aware of) every movement of a transition.
ConflictSTRUCTURE
crisis climax resolutiona state of things
in which a decisive change
one way or another is impending
rising conflict
1 2 3 4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
the no-return point. The
highest in the scene
A man steals: conflict. He is pursued: rising conflict. He is caught: crisis. He is condemned
by the court: climax. Transferring him to prison: resolution
Es. Cherry Orchard
RecapitulationFew things to underlining
Obligatory scene
Exposition
Dialogue
Entrances and Exits
RecapitulationObligatory scene
Is the scene for which everyone is waiting, the scene which has been promised throughout and which cannot be eliminated
A point of concentration toward which the maximum expectation is aroused
There is no phase which is more important than others.
The obligatory scene must not be treated as an independent issue
Obligatoryscene
YES
NO
RecapitulationExposition
It is said the act of establishing mood, atmosphere, background,before the action begins
It is part of the whole play
It should proceed constantly, without interruption
It has to be done through physical actions
It has to be the character’s own growth
RecapitulationDialogue
It must reveal the character
It must foreshadow coming events
Mind the followings:
Save words
Sacrifice “brilliance”
Let the man speak in the language of his own word
Don’t be pedantic
Use clever language (gags) only as truly part of the play
Dialogue must be dialectical in itself (it has is own rhythm “crescendo”)
Do not overemphasize dialogue (do not overcame the characters)
RecapitulationEntrancesand Exits
You must be aware of the reason because the character enters or exits
The character must have his well rooted will to get in or get out
It is bad to send a character out of the room for a glass of water merely so that two other characters could talk privately and then have him
return when they finish their chat.
Art is not the mirror of life, but the essence of life
Lajos Egri (1946)