As Long As It Needs to Be

The most frequent questions and concerns I receive from young playwrights preparing their scripts have to do with the limits that we place on script format and page count. In fact, this was the most troubling thing to the writers in a playwriting class I just finished teaching. They were constantly checking the number of pages and double-checking to see if I thought they might have enough, or too much. I tried to ease their worries by answering the question “How long does it need to be?” with the open answer “As long as it needs to be to tell the story.”

I completely understand the anxiety about these things. The majority of the submissions we receive each year come from students who are writing a play for the first time and what we request for a manuscript is different from the way a script looks when published in the books that they read and use to rehearse the school play. Luckily, script formatting comes pretty easily with a little practice. (You can find more information about the format requirements on our blog here.) While format can be managed, it is page count that causes young writers the most anxiety.

This makes sense to me, too. Young playwrights spend most of their time writing working on papers and projects for class, which often have limits and requirements. I get it: When there is a page limit, or a page minimum, you want to make sure you are saying enough, but not too much, while still writing something good. I worried about this when I was a student and, truth be told, it is something I still think about now that I’m writing my dissertation.

Screenshot from our Guidelines Page

The NJ Young Playwrights Festival asks that script submissions be “longer than 20 minutes in performance time (roughly 20 typed pages)” because that’s what we are able to manage in the production of the Festival. We choose about 9-10 plays and only have a total of three hours between the two performances to present that work. And I want all of you writers to know that while we ask for scripts that are no more than 20 minutes in length (roughly 20 pages of typed dialogue), that isn’t an exact measure of what accounts for 20 minutes on stage. Please keep in mind that if your play reaches the final round, and even if it is selected for the Festival performance, you will do a lot of rewrites and revisions to it. So, there is room to go a little over the limit, if you need to. (Please note the emphasis on little!) But please don’t go overboard. Reaching beyond 25 pages is probably too much.

But really, rather than worrying about how long or how short your play might be, try to focus on telling a good story. Make this a play that you feel confident and passionate about – a play that you are proud to share with the world and a play that you yourself would really like to see. Because in the end, that is what is most important. Tell the story first. Then edit to fit the guidelines later.

Happy writing!

Getting Started

The school year is well underway, which means many young playwrights have begun, or will soon begin, writing a play that will be submitted to the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival. One of the biggest challenges in this work is getting started, or more specifically, deciding what to write about.

I originally began writing this post on August 26 while observing a playwriting workshop taught by playwright and master teaching artist, Dominique Cieri, for a group of teachers from the Madison Public Schools. Dominique has been a teaching artist with Playwrights Theatre for many years and it was in a workshop that she taught there that I've pulled a number of ideas and techniques that I use in my own writing and teaching. In fact, you will find other exercises from Dominique in previous posts on this blog (particularly this one)!

There was one activity from the teacher workshop that I felt could be helpful to those of you beginning to write that centers around what Dominique refers to as "the Passover Question": What makes today different from any other day in the character's life? The idea here is that we write a play because of an important event that happens in a character's life. As a result, the action of the play begins with the average, everyday life of the character, which is then interrupted by an emergency that needs to be address, or an opportunity that must be taken. To get to this idea, it is helpful to look at similar "life-changing" and challenging moments from your own life. So that this doesn't become a biographical play, I suggest imagining that you are watching this event happen to another person and write about it in the present tense. Record everything that you sense (see, hear, etc.) in that moment.

Some of Dominique's other suggestions included the following:

1. Write about a fantasy, or dream, that you have.
2. Write five facts about yourself that you know to be true.
3. Write five facts about the universe (these don't necessarily need to be true).

Something from this list is likely to prompt an idea for a story. We also collect a variety of writing prompts on our Pinterest page, which may be of use to you. The main thing is to find an idea that interests you and to start writing. Don't get frustrated if you can't seem to hit on something right away. The important thing is to keep thinking and to keep writing. And don't throw any ideas away - you never know when something you decided not to write about may be helpful to get you through a place where you're stuck later on in the process.

Good luck and happy writing!

Submissions now being accepted for 2016 NJ Young Playwrights Contest!

We're happy to announce that submissions are now being accepted for the 2016 New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest/Festival! Submissions is a two-part process that requires you to:

1. Complete the online NJYPF Title Page Info form.
2. Send your play via email to njypf@ptnj.org

You will find the Title Page form by clicking the link above, or via the NJYPF website. Be sure to follow the links to the "Guidelines and Play Submission" page. The info form is embedded at the bottom of the page.

When sending your play to our email address, please attach your file as either an MS Word, or PDF document. Please note that we CANNOT receive shared Google Docs, or Pages files.

There is plenty more information on the Festival website, but please feel free to contact the Education office at PTNJ with any questions. We are best reached at 973-514-1787, ext. 21 or education@ptnj.org.

Happy writing!

The Woman Who Knows Everything

This morning we began our final session of the Creative Arts Academy Summer Theatre Camp, which includes a very eager and energetic group of seven young playwrights. My last playwriting session brought a number of new activities, approaches, and ideas that I look forward to trying with this new group of students. I also was pleased by the serendipity that graced our usual first day writing routine as I gave the playwrights the following prompt:

"In 20 seconds, someone is going to walk through the door and truthfully answer any question you may have. What is that question?"

Without prompt or prior planning, just a few moments later into our classroom walked Brittany Goodwin who is assisting with the acting class across the hall. Brittany had a procedural camp question for me, but her timing was perfect to actually answer some of the questions from the group.

Brittany Goodwin is the Woman Who Knows Everything

What followed was a great example of how improvising with actors can help inspire story ideas and help get playwrights past a period of writer's block. The group loved Brittany's ideas so much the first time that they requested her again a little later in the day. It was a happy circumstance that brought about some interesting initial ideas for writing. Now, I need to find a way to incorporate it into future writing classes!

Digital Master Class for Young Playwrights

A few days ago, as the summer playwriting class was working through their story idea discussed in the previous post, I thought it might be interesting to hear from some playwrights about how they get started on a new work. So, took to Twitter and sent the following question:

I also wrote to a few writers directly and received some excellent responses, which I shared with the playwrights the very next day. The class found many of the playwrights' suggestions very helpful as they wrote that day, so I am posting them below for all our young playwrights to use. You may find these suggestions useful not only as you start writing, but throughout the revision process, too.

Tweets are shared largely as they were received. Some tweaks were made to make any Twitter-speak a bit more readable here. (Websites and Twitter handles included, when possible.) You can find the original suggestions on Twitter under #youngplaywrights.


Pia Wilson (@pwilson720)
 “I usually wind up with an idea for a play & let it roll around in my head for a while B4 I decide it’s worth doing”

 “Then, if the characters keep talking 2 me, I’ll write character descriptions. I usually hear/see a scene repeatedly”

Ramon Esquivel (@Bub1974)

“Start with the strongest element of idea: the character, setting, situation, or question. Fill in the rest later.”

Dania Ramos (@DaniaDania)

 “Depends on project. Usually do basic outline w post-its on foam board. Easy to switch, add, cut scenes as I go.”

“Here’s an example from a novel. For plays there are less post-its. Good luck to the playwrights!”

Storyboard from Dania Ramos

Lauren Gunderson (@LalaTellsAStory

“I envision an ending (maybe not THE ending). Once I know where the story is headed I can really start writing.”

Gabriel Jason Dean (@GabrielJasonDea)
"I ruminate for a long time before I write, figure out basics of my story, driving conflict. Need those first."

D.W. Gregory (@dwgregorywrites)

“often start with questions to myself about the characters”

“many pages of questions; then an exploratory scene to get the characters talking”

"Questions: start with basics -- who is this person, what does she want, why does she want it?”

“What’s the story in two sentences? Why am I drawn to it? What do I want to explore?”

“who else is in the story? Why must they be in the story? How do their needs conflict with the central character’s?”

“I write down as many questions as come to mind. No answers, just questions.”

“Then I visualize an event that I am sure will be in the play somewhere and I write a scene. Pure exploration.”

“I write the scene to let the characters talk to me. This stimulates more questions.”

“after I fill a lot of pages with questions I sometimes think about the events of the play. In broad strokes."

“What do I know must be in the play – things that must happen, things that may. Write these down as they occur to me.”

“Then I look at the events and start to think about the order of events. How does the sequence serve my aims?"

“when I have seven major events in a sequence I think makes sense I start to work on a detailed outline."

“Once I have a rudimentary outline I start writing scenes – and start answering questions.”

A Picture Paints a Thousand Words

Yesterday we welcomed our first group of playwrights to Summer Theatre Camp at Playwrights Theatre. Among the many things we've done in the first two sessions was a writing exercise in which the group began a story using this painting by American painter Norman Rockwell.

April Fool's 1948 by Norman Rockwell
from The Saturday Evening Post

According to The Saturday Evening Post website, Rockwell painted a series of April Fool's Day paintings for the magazine's cover page as a reprieve from his famous Four Freedoms work. The first picture was published in 1943; another in 1945; the last in 1948, which is the one with which the class worked today. First, the class discussed what they saw in the painting and then were asked questions about the characters and the setting:

Who are these people?
What is the relationship between these people?
Who is the main character in the picture?
Where are they?
What is going on?

As you can imagine, the group developed a whole host of ideas and quickly noticed the "errors" in the painting: a series of oddities and mix-ups that Rockwell included for Post readers to find. The class was asked to consider this painting as a moment in the story of the main character (they choose the girl with the doll for this purpose) and began to develop a story idea.

The group named the girl Nancy Jane (a combination of the two more popular suggestions) and decided that she was a proper, stubborn, and taciturn (great word!) girl of about 11 years old who is living with her grandfather while Mom and Dad are on a world tour for the summer. Somehow she has discovered these oddities in her grandfather's attic and in this moment he is explaining to her how they are artifacts to a mystical world for which he serves as some kind of gatekeeper.

This is just one scenario that came up in the group discussion. With so many objects in the frame, there is a wealth of possibility as far as what the story is about and how it proceeds forward from the moment captured in the picture. We also discussed what Nancy Jane's journey might be, the obstacles she would face, and eventually how she would find her way home. They were having such a great time with this story that it was disappointing to have to stop, but time is short in our 10 day workshop and they had their own story ideas that needed attention. However, I look forward to using this picture in writing workshops yet to come!

How's it going? One month to go!

Why, hello there!

Sorry for the long radio silence. We're back and anxiously awaiting your scripts.

How's it going?

What are you writing about?

One of the more difficult parts of writing is getting started. And while it can be easy to suggest that the best way to get started is to simply sit down and write, ideas don't always come that easily. Hopefully you're reading this with a solid idea already in place and you're cruising through a first draft (or later) of your script. Certainly there are some of you who may feel a little stuck. That's ok. It happens. The trick is figuring out a way to get out of the rut.

For the past few weeks, we've been sharing a series of writing prompts on the NJYPF Pinterest page and linking them through PTNJ's Twitter feed and the NJYPF Facebook page. Maybe you've seen some. These short prompts are great ways to get started with a story and see where it takes you. It could be that you come up with a story, or a character, or some other germ of an idea that sprouts into your script submission. Even if a prompt only sprouts a sliver of an idea, that is a success to embrace.

So, if you haven't yet, take a peek at some of those prompts and find where your pen, or keyboard, takes you. And if you do use one of the prompts for your final submission, we'd love to know which one it was and how it got you started. But most of all, we'd love to know what you're writing. What is your story about? What excites you about it the most? We'd love to hear from you.

One month left to write before the December 15 deadline!

Happy writing!

Writing prompts

We're four weeks in to summer with only six weeks left before school begins again! At some point in those six weeks we will be announcing the procedural changes to the NJ Young Playwrights Festival, but you shouldn't wait for that announcement to start working on your play.

Picture found on wonderlanddrift.tumblr.com

Head on over to our Pinterest page to find a wealth of links to writing prompts that may spark your imagination. I suggest free-writing based on a few of those prompts to see where your imagination might take you. You may just find yourself with a head start on your script submission!

Happy writing!

Lessons from Sondheim

If you haven't yet seen Six by Sondheim, the HBO original documentary about the life and work of Stephen Sondheim, I highly suggest that you take a look. Or simply do a web search for video of "Sondheim talking" and you are bound to come up with something very interesting and insightful.

In addition to Sondheim's legacy of artistic work is his legacy of educating young artists. In the late 1970s, while in London, Sondheim saw a notice for a young playwrights festival at the Royal Court Theatre under the direction of Gerald Chapman. As president of the Foundation of the Dramatists Guild, Sondheim laid the work for a national young playwrights competition and recruited Chapman to help him launch the first contest in 1981. This program became Young Playwrights, Inc and sparked the rise of similar youth playwriting contests, festivals, and residency programs across the United States. One of these programs was the New Jersey Young Playwrights Contest & Festival, which began in consultation with Chapman and was something of a regional partner with Young Playwrights, Inc in its first few years. Similar opportunities for young playwrights continue to sprout up throughout the country today.

Since watching the documentary a few weeks ago, I've been searching for a clip, or statement that I could share with you. In my research, I found an interview with Sondheim by Rob Weinert-Kendt originally published in American Theatre in April 2011 which I have linked below. In this article, Sondheim talks about his plays, his process, and his influences in a way that also serves as something of a lesson in musical theatre history. I found the section about writing from an "actor's point-of-view" to be particularly interesting as I've often approached my own writing, and the teaching of writers, in the same way. His thoughts on the current state of theatre were interesting, too!

Enjoy!

Photo by Richard Termine & from TCG website; linked to article.

(If you have any trouble accessing the link via the photo, you can find the interview on the TCG website here: http://www.tcg.org/publications/at/apr11/sondheim.cfm)

Rethinking "Write What You Know"

Whenever I log in to the blog for a new post, I like to see which older posts have been viewed and what our "all-time" top entries are. One of our most popular entries is one entitled "Write What You Know", which originally premiered on October 20, 2008 and was re-posted last August 27, 2012. You can link to those entries by clicking the dates, but before you do, I wanted to share something else about the idea of "what you know" that has been brewing in my mind for the past few days.

Students often are told "write what you know", which seems simple enough, but a number of young playwrights in our workshops feel pressured by this advice. Sometimes they want to write about a topic, an event, place, or person that they know very little about. This knowledge can be gained by a little reading and research, of course. However, one thing that I always ask young writers to keep in mind is that, even if it is based in reality, or history, what they are writing is also a piece of fiction. That fiction stems from their imagination (something that we don't often connect with knowledge) and I believe that if you can imagine it, then you know it. An example of this may be with a science-fiction, or fantasy play. That world exists in a writer's mind and the writer needs to know a lot about it and how it works in order to accurately share it with an audience. Again, the advice is "write what you know", but a little less pressure involved.

Not everyone wants to write a sci-fi/fantasy play, of course. No matter what the genre, it is helpful for playwrights to know about themselves - their background, sure, but also things that spark their imaginations and emotions. The older posts that I have linked above include a self-reflection tool that our young playwrights have found useful when first thinking about their plays, or looking for some inspiration during revision. Give it a look and see what ideas might be sparked in you as you begin, or continue, your writing.

We can't wait to see the results...

Happy writing!

2 Months to Go!

There are two months left before the submission deadlines for the 2014 NJ Young Playwrights Festival! How's your script going?

Get going!

Originally posted on the blog: July 17, 2012.

You may not be a wrestling fan, but the phrase is probably familiar to you: “Let’s get ready to rumbllllllllllllllllle!” Today we’re just a little under six months until the submission deadline for the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival and its time to get writing. Specific dates and details about the 31st anniversary installment of the Festival will be posted in the coming months, but for now the best thing to do if you’re thinking about submitting a play is to get started!

There may be some of you who have an idea and are ready to dive right in, but there are others of you who may be struggling to get started. Maybe you have a lot of ideas and don’t know which to choose. Or maybe the opposite is true and you just can’t think of a thing. These are common blocks that affect every writer at some point in time. The important thing when you are struggling is to pick something and start writing. You don’t necessarily need to start with the play itself – just put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard and let the ideas flow.

No matter where you are with an idea it may help to jot down a few ideas in a list, or an outline, or a synopsis. What are you interested in? What ideas come to mind when you think about a story? What kinds of plays do you like to see – OR – what kinds of stories do you like to read? Do you have an idea for a plot, or a character? (or both?) What do you want to say about the world, or to the world? What is important to you? Whatever you have in mind, wherever your brain takes you, get those ideas down on paper and see what happens. Before long you may find that you are developing an idea for a play that you feel passionate about – something that moves you deeply.

Over the next few months, I will share some ideas for writing your play from beginning to end. I hope that some of these suggestions will be helpful to you as you write, but please know that not everything that is mentioned here may work for you. There is more than one way to write a play and it is important that you figure out what works for you and what works for the story that you want to tell. I encourage you to share your ideas and your progress by commenting on the posts as we go. I can also be reached at njypf@ptnj.org if you have any comments that you don’t want to share publicly, or to answer any questions that you might have.

I look forward to getting started with you and to seeing the finished pieces in January.

Happy writing!

Summer playwriting

Our summer playwrights are back at it during these final two weeks of August. I'm working with two young playwrights on their new one-act plays, which have quickly taken off from ideas to multiple pages in a few short days. Looking forward to getting full drafts by the start of next week and to involving some actors in the revision process.

Oh, and we're working on some exciting news about the 2014 NJ Young Playwrights Festival. Details coming soon!

Conflict and Raising the Stakes

Originally published on December 12, 2008

Conflict is what drives the story of your play forward. This is the tension created between the main character and the obstacles that stand in the way of the character achieving his or her goal(s). Conflict starts with what the character wants. This can be something as simple as a character wanting to earn enough money to get a present for his or her mother. But remember, a playwright wants to get the audience to care about the main character and really root for him or her and that can be done by “raising the stakes,” or to put it another way, challenging the character’s desire to get what he or she wants.

Let’s use the example of the character who wants to earn money for a present. We’ll call her Penny. Keeping in mind the outline from a few posts ago, we need to identify Penny’s WANT and EMERGENCY. We know that she wants to earn money to get a present for her mother; I will leave it to you to decide why she needs to begin that journey (the Emergency). The next step is to figure out what she will do to earn the money. To do that, consider what are some things that people do to get what they want. These are the ACTIONS. Some examples might be:

ASK
WORK
STEAL

You might be able to add more ideas to this list, or to change some of these suggestions to be more specific. “Ask” could become “borrow.”

Do you see how each action gets more serious? Not everyone will be comfortable to try each of these things, so the idea is not to choose one of these actions for the character, but to have them try each kind until they reach something that the character is not comfortable doing and needs to make a choice. For example, Penny might try asking a friend, or relative for the money, but is unable to earn enough to the present that she wants. So, she gets a job, but finds that she won’t earn the money quick enough. Then perhaps a friend mentions to Penny that she could steal the money, but Penny knows that stealing is wrong and is not comfortable doing that. Now she needs to make a decision. Does she steal the money so her mother has a present? Does she try something else? Does she get a different present? Not get a present at all?

Presenting your character with these different challenges raises their stakes in the story and creates greater tension. The result may be a play that draws the audience deeper into the story and gets them more invested in the outcome. And it is the outcome, or what the character decides to do and how they experience the consequence, which delivers your theme or message to the audience. But that’s for next week. For now, raise the stakes for your character – push them to the limit and see how they respond!

Happy writing!

Advice to Young Playwrights, part 3 - Summer Hortillosa

Our next installment of Advice toYoung Playwrights comes from Summer Hortillosa, a 2007 NJ Young Playwrights Festival winner for her play, The Not-So Lovely Tale of Strawberry Fructose. Summer is a journalist, playwright, and director whose recent work can be found on her website http://www.summerization.com.

Enjoy!
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What makes a strong play?

I think strong plays have a clear direction in multiple areas -- character development, plot and audience experience. Strong plays feature relatable, consistent characters with believable dialogue that make their needs clear and drive the story. A strong play is one that has many movable parts that are pieced together in a way that the beginning can't help but eventually result in the ending and the ending seems to have only been possible because of the beginning.

What types of characters do you like to portray/write?

I like to both portray and write fantastic characters with fantastic needs. I like unique characters who are almost entirely figments of imagination but who have strong emotional cores that make them completely relatable. I like strong characters, strange characters and characters capable of witty, fun dialogue. Argumentative and honest are some of the best things a character can be.

What do you look for when choosing a play to work on?

Generally logistics play a large role when selecting a play for production, but otherwise I try to select plays I feel I have written well or, when doing someone else's play, that they have written well. I like to choose plays that explore a fair range of emotions, that would be fun to produce and watch and that I feel are strong and have interesting characters.

Please describe the best experience that you had working on a play.

My most recent production, a one-woman show in the SO LOW Theater Festival in Jersey City called Kookspeak, was one of my favorite experiences so far because production was easy. I wrote, directed and performed the piece and used very few props or effects, so I did not have to worry too much about budgeting, aligning schedules or a lot of other stuff that happens when I have to produce/stage manage/do everything for my shows. In this case, I mainly focused on promoting my show and on rehearsals.

Directing one's self can be a challenge and requires a lot of self-awareness (or, if possible, a video or mirror as an outside eye), but was a lot of fun for me. I was able to make myself work whenever I wanted to, and while I had a general rehearsal schedule that I set up for myself and tried to stick to, I had a lot of freedom to rehearse more or less than planned depending on my needs. I was free to push myself as hard as possible and make all the executive decisions, which is always great.

Also, it made the final product very pure -- I will perhaps never have a work as fully representative of who I am as an artist. The words, thoughts and emotions were all mine, as were the staging, direction, acting choices -- it was liberating and fully satisfying, especially when I received a great response from my audience and peers.

Please describe the worst experience that you had working on a play.

The worst -- or rather, most difficult -- experience I had working on a play was a full production of Shakespeare's As You Like It involving about 32 high school students. Having to direct over 30 teenagers with various levels of commitment and talent as well as oversee the entire production -- with very little control over the groups in charge of lighting, sound, costumes and props -- was mindbogglingly tough.

I had to double-cast our leads, Rosalind and Orlando, which lightened the load for four generally equally talented actors who weren't very accustomed to memorizing lots of Shakespearean speech, but made it difficult to make the characters consistent throughout the play. Also, as a requirement for the class, we had to have every student -- even those who were terrible at acting -- play a role. Lastly, as any director can imagine, coordinating the schedules of over 30 people and having to deal with egos, lateness, forgetfulness, mistakes, irresponsibility, and all the other possible vices any group of 30 could have was a monumental task in itself.

Overall, however, we were able to pull it all together and put on several great performances. As any director will quickly discover, learning to roll with the punches and press on to put on a good show is possibly the most important skill they can have.

What advice would you give to a young playwright currently working on a new play?

Make sure every effect has a cause and every cause has an effect when you revise. Tying up loose ends, making sure that important facts are established (in a natural way and at the right time) and keeping characters consistent will strengthen your play. Read dialogue out loud and make sure everything sounds natural; cut what you can. Don't fall in love too much with your favorite characters or with your ability to write, because you might end up dragging out scenes and tiring your audience or worse, finding yourself disappointed when your work is produced and the performance doesn't live up to your expectations.

Character Wants and Needs

Originally published on November 17, 2008

Now that you have become familiar with your character, it is time to put them into action. One way to do this is to focus on the character’s goals or, what it is that the character WANTS or NEEDS to achieve. To organize a story around this idea, I suggest trying the following organizer. Definitions of each term are provided, but we’ll take a look at an example a little further down the page.

CHARACTER – Character name goes here. You may also include any information from the Character Biography that you feel is important.

WANT/NEED – A better life.

EMERGENCY – What makes this day different from other days? Or… why does the character suddenly decide to go and get what they want/need?
OBSTACLES – People and things that stand in the character’s way.

ACTIONS – What the character does to get past the obstacles.

CONCLUSION – How the story ends.

Now, let’s take Cinderella as an example of a character.

The story of Cinderella has multiple versions, adaptations, and retellings, so when I have approached this in workshops everyone has a slightly different take on the story. (For three versions from the Russian, Chinese and Algonquin cultures, check out Cinderella: The World’s Favorite Fairytale by Lowell Swortzell.) To make things easier, we’ll go with a version that most people are likely familiar with - the Perrault/Disney version.

Cinderella wants, or it may be more appropriate to say that Cinderella NEEDS, a better life. She is trapped in a horrible home with a stepmother and stepsisters who demand that she do all of their work – cooking, cleaning, and making their clothes. It is an abusive situation and she needs to get out.

One day, a message arrives from the palace. The Prince is looking for a wife and plans a ball to which he is inviting all of the young women in the kingdom. Cinderella sees this as an opportunity to achieve her goal of a better life, but her Stepmother and Stepsisters prevent Cinderella from going. However, Cinderella gets help from her Fairy Godmother who magically transforms the animals and objects in the house into the coach, gown, and attendants who assist in getting Cinderella to the ball. However, this assistance comes with a catch. Cinderella must leave the ball by midnight. At that time, the magic will wear off and everything will turn back into what it once was.

So, Cinderella attends the ball, avoids being spotted by her Stepmother and Stepsisters, dances with the Prince, and leaves the palace just as the clock strikes midnight. However, she loses one of her glass slippers at the palace, which the Prince then uses to find her.

That’s enough information for us to go back to the organizer. Given that version of the story, I might fill things out in this way…

CHARACTER – Cinderella

WANT/NEED – A better life

EMERGENCY – The invitation to the ball asks for all young women to attend. Stepmother and the Stepsisters cannot overrule the Prince, so she has a chance to go to the ball, which just might offer her the opportunity to get a better life.

OBSTACLES – Stepmother, Stepsisters, Time.

ACTIONS – Completes the tasks her Stepfamily gives her, Accepts help from the Fairy Godmother, Dances with the Prince, Returns home as the magic wears off, but now is disappointed.
CONCLUSION – ??

We know how the classic versions of this story end, but I will leave the conclusion undecided to demonstrate that the story does not need to end one particular way. Depending upon the author/playwright’s theme, a story can end any number of ways, based on what the author wants the audience to learn. But we can get into theme another time.

Now back to your character. Try to place your character into this outline and see how the story might unfold. I encourage you to try some different versions by changing the character’s want, obstacles or action. How does that change the story? What do you think an audience might learn from each version of the story?

Another thing to consider is just as each character experiences obstacles along the way, they might also find help. Help can come in the form of people like Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, or things like Dorothy’s ruby slippers, or information like a Jedi Padawan’s training in the ways of the Force. See what works for the story you want to tell.

Happy writing!

Advice to Young Playwrights, part 2 - Constantine Ligons

A few weeks ago, I asked some of the actors, directors, playwrights, readers, and teaching artists who have been associated with the NJ Young Playwrights Festival for their advice for young playwrights like you. This advice comes from Constantine Lignos, a NY-based actor/playwright who also was a NJ Young Playwrights Festival winner in 2006. Here is Constantine's response below... enjoy!

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A strong play is universal. Anyone can relate to any character at any moment in the play. No matter how personal it may be for the playwright, audiences want to see something that they feel they have a visceral connection with, not just one writer's one-hour psychotherapy session. The writer needs to distance himself from the subject matter. To do this, he must delve so deeply into the experience that it is no longer about his own personal and emotional relationship to the matter, but how the world is affected by that aspect of human-ness.

I almost exclusively write strong roles for women. Women who are so down in the dumps that their ascension must be an act of power and control. To portray this in a way that would seem universal, I always add some abstraction to them. We can always universally relate to the abstractions of the imagination. Imagination is something we all share.

As an actor, I look for a fun challenge. A play that lets me push the boundaries of how a character should be played. It's never fun to do what you should do. We're allowed to break the rules as artists, so why don't we?

As a writer, I write plays that I know I won't get sick of in a few weeks. I almost always do get tired of them, though.

My advice would be to keep a journal. Always. And write in it every day. Write everything without hesitation. Also, never be afraid to write a scene, or a few bits of dialogue, instead of a whole play. You'd be surprised how those 4 lines you wrote can turn into a three-act play a few years down the road. When you're feeling down, write. When you're feeling great, write.

Making characters into people

(portions of this post were originally published on November 11, 2008)

Characters should function in the world of your play as a real person, or being, inside that world. They have certain ways of moving, thinking, and interaction with other people or beings, just as we all do in “reality.” Giving a character a name is a simple way to begin fleshing them out.

A few years ago, I led a playwriting workshop for teachers at the NJEA Convention in Atlantic City. Each of the participants completed a Self-Questionnaire similar to the one in the previous blog post. After that, I asked everyone to take their own name and recreate themselves as a new character by changing at least their last name… some changed both. (I learned this activity during a workshop run by Young Playwrights, Inc., an organization that runs an excellent national contest for young playwrights. I would encourage you to submit your play there, too - http://www.youngplaywrights.org/.) If you are stuck for a character idea, or a character name at least, this is a simple way to get started. Some of the names the Atlantic City group came up with were:

Jean Mercedes
Nicole Moodie
Fran Active
Fresca Visions
Calliope Sky

These names give a sense of something specific about the character. It could be a characteristic, a favorite color, an environment, and on and on... Do you have an idea of what some of these characters might be like? How old are each of these characters? What do they do for fun? Do they work? What kind of work might they do? What does each character want in life?

Another way to get deeper into a character is to use a Character Biography Sheet. In his book The Playwrights Process, Buzz McLaughlin provides samples of mini-form and long-form biographies. At Playwrights Theatre, we use an adaptation of his Mini-form biography that asks a playwright to consider the character's dreams, secrets, fears, and conflicts. These are all great places that might spark an interesting story idea.

I’ve often found that when I can envision my character I have an easier time writing for him or her. Then I write a description, or even a short (very short) story, to place that person in a location and to get a sense of how they move, think, and interact with others. This doesn’t need to be something that becomes part of the play, but just something that I can use to get a clearer sense of who the story is about and how they function. Once that is set, its time to give them something to want and a problem to face. More about that in a few days.

Happy writing!

"Write what you know"

(Originally posted October 20, 2008)

"Children want to write. They want to write the first day they attend school. This is no accident. Before they went to school they marked up walls, pavements, newspapers with crayons, chalk, pens or pencils... anything that makes a mark. The child's marks say, 'I am.'"

- from Writing: Teachers and Children at Work by Donald H. Graves

You may have heard people say that you should only "write what you know." What does that mean exactly? A lot of young writers get intimidated by this idea and believe that they don't know enough to write about whatever it is that interests them. That is simply not true. While it is important to know something about what you are writing, you will ultimately need to use your creativity and imagination to create the world in which the character lives and breathes. So, don't be afraid to write about that issue, that event, or that feeling that you are itching to get out. Writing is a way for you to tell the world what you're thinking and how you feel.

Strong writing is inspired by things that you are passionate about. Once you have identified an idea that you feel strongly about, draw from your experience and imagination to create a character and a world for that character to inhabit. Send them on a journey to accomplish something and see what happens. You can always go back later to do research about any experiences, time periods, or other facts that you are unsure about. These will be included in your revisions. But for now, to help you get started in generating story ideas, take a look at the following "Self-Questionnaire." This was adapted from a worksheet created by Dominique Cieri-Moore, a teaching artist with Playwrights Theatre.

SELF-QUESTIONNAIRE
Answer each of the questions about you. Be sure to include as much detail as possible.

1. What is your full name?
2. What are some nicknames you have? Who calls you these names?
3. Where were you born?
4. Is there a story about your birthday?
5. Mother’s full name (including her Maiden name, if you know it)
6. Father’s full name
7. One grandparent’s full name
8. Do you call anyone by a nickname? Who are these people? What do you call them? Why?
9. Who do people tell you that you look like? (family member, someone famous?)
10. What is important to you? What would you stand up and fight for?
11. What gets you really angry?
12. What is your biggest dream?
13. What is unique about you?
14. What or who do you admire? Why?
15. Everyone has a life question. This is something that you’re dying to know. Someone is going to walk through the door in 20 seconds and answer this question. Quick! Don’t think about it, just write down the first question that comes to mind.

Hopefully there is an answer to one of these questions that has sparked an idea to jump start your writing. These are the same questions that you might ask your characters to get a deeper understanding of each of them. See where your answers take you and if you can create a character for your story, ask these same questions of that character.

Have fun writing!

Oldies, but goodies

The blog has been around for a while now, but it wasn't until I was doing some maintenance to the site this week that I noticed just how long it has been: four years! Wow, that time really flew!

There were some good and useful posts that haven't been seen in a while, so I am going to re-post a few in the coming weeks. I think you will find them helpful as you write and I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the ideas and suggestions that these posts contain.

The first will go up on Monday morning. Enjoy!