Plot: One Thing After Another T o a playwright, plot is a series of events that determine whether or not the main character gets his or her goal. Each event creates a conflict, throwing another obstacle between the character and his or her objective. Each new character in a story should add a new conflict; just like us, characters all have different wants and needs.
Remember that obstacles can exist on the outside, like a road block, a bully or a test – and on the inside, like a fear, a secret or a mistaken belief. These often go hand-in-hand. For example, a bully is only an obstacle if his victim is afraid. Similarly, the monster on the F Train is an obstacle, and so is Lupe’s belief that she’s only an ordinary girl.
Decisions, D
Playwrights “raise the stakes” in a story by making the character’s goal something important and valuable – and by making each conflict equally important and valuable. The problems that surface in these plays aren’t small – even when they appear to be at first; the playwright has deliberately chosen big issues and big events.
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isions Characters in play s make tough de cisions. At the be what he or she wa ginning of a stor nts – and decide y, the hero decide s to go for it. As to solve problem s conflicts arise, th s – and suffers th e hero decides ho e consequences. Th Run away!”) is al w e safe choice (li most never the m ke “Run away! ost interesting ch oice, dramatical ly. ter’s more Choose one of your charac ions. then identify his or her opt and challenging obstacles The Easy Out:
The Smart Choice:
ve: The Completely Unexpected Mo
Listen Up! Alone in his bedroom, a boy imagines wild adventures as Batman, the city’s avenging angel. As Batman leaps into action to foil a criminal plot, the boy gets so caught up in his own fantasies that the reality of his own life spills forth as well – even the damaged nature of his relationship to his father.
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I Am Not Batman is performed with a live percussionist, who replicates the “wham-kapow!” of the sounds in Batman: The Animated Series.
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