INTRODUCTION
Playwriting is a dominant aspect of the theatre today. This creative process of putting a play together in a dialogic form so pervades the world of theatre that it appears quitessential to the existence of contemporary theatre practice. Since the Greek times, people have taken up playwriting as a profession, an enviable means of livelihood.
In this study, we will attempt to examine the concept of playwriting, the meaning of play, the play structure, the qualities of a good playwright, where and how does he derive his materials, artistic devices, as well as the mechanics of play composition.
3.1 The Concept of Playwriting
Playwriting is a creative process of putting a play together by means of written language. It is a means of distilling thoughts, experiences, ideas, beliefs, faiths, even dreams, in a conversional manner, in order to situate characters properly in their environments, and to give fresh and penetrating insights and meaning to the chaotic situations of mundane life. It is indeed, a creative dramatic situation of deploying language in order to find out the unsaid things of life or to reveal the many-sided dimensions of man. It is an intuitive process of gaining insight into human qualities and nature. It is the creative process of involving the marriage of the experience and unique gift of inspiration. This marriage involves the combination of mental images derived from experience and knowledge to generate new meaning.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 1
Explain what you understand by playwriting.
3.2 The Play
Bernard Beckerman defines a play as a system of action which gives an illusion of wholeness to the disorder of life. It is an arrangement of segments of action. And this arrangement Beckerman further states, is “the playwright’s imprint of meaning upon man’s passage through time”. Although a play is said to convey sense wholeness, it is no more than an abstract of a larger or extended action. This is because the incidents it contains are usually a portion of all the events that comprise its story. Certain ideas that are well beyond the limits of stage resources or even those actors are not often directly expressed. Some can be simulated by means of sound, while others are reported. Because there are limitless possibilities in a given story, a play usually embodies essential moments of the story that informs it. In selecting the crucial moments, the playwright is guided by the objective he seeks to realize in the play, as well as the audience’s expectation.
The mode of dramatic activity a play makes use of is chiefly determined by the social reality of that particular period and the prevailing dramatic conventions inherent in the historical epoch in which the play is composed. Dramatic activity expressed in a play can either be artificially constructed or it can be derived from real life. According to Beckerman, in “abstracted activity, we expect the appearance of every day behaviour, if not every day’s circumstance”. In this kind of dramatic activity, what is done on stage is normative. Artificially derived activities, according to Beckerman, “are products of artistic traditions intended to refer the audience not to personal experience but to socio-aesthetic conventions”, that is, the artistic devices of the period.
For example, speaking in declamatory voices or blank verses are not normative.
THE PLAY STRUCTURE
A play, according to John Howard Lawson, “embodies a vision, poses an ethical or emotional problem, praises heroes or laughs at fools”. Though “the playwright may not be conscious of any purpose beyond telling tale”, his play nevertheless embodies “a point of view, a judgement of human relationships”, and the “the structure of a play, the design of each scene and the movement of the acting to its climax, are the means by which the concept is communicated” (vii).
When we talk of a play’s structure, we refer to its pattern, how the play is put together or organised. Basically, we have two major play structures. They are the organic and episodic structures.
ORGANIC STRUCTURE
The theory of organic structure was formulated by Aristotle following his study of the tragic plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. The theory of organic structure emphasizes structural unity. This means that a play should neither begin nor end haphazardly. Incidents should be arranged in a logical progression, in such a way that the removal of a portion of it should be capable of disjoining the entire system. Aristotle in this theory states that the play’s events should revolve around a major character, and that change of fortune should be brought about by reversal or recognition or both, according to what is probable or inevitable.
EPISODIC STRUCTURE
This is the type of structure that does not adhere to logic in terms of the arrangement of incidents in a play. Scenes do not follow one another in a clear chain of cause and effect. Episodic plot moves across filmic space and time. This is to say that an episodic play covers an extensive period of time, sometimes many years. In one play one can go anywhere and encounter all sorts of people. There are many sub-plots which at times appear parallel. Ideas are consistently clashing and scenes oppose each other for purposes of creating ironic situation that man finds himself in life. In a nutshell, episodic plot is the cinematic way of patterning a play. In Epic theatre unity is only achieved through the narrator or the narrating voice.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 2
What is a play?
3.3 Dramatic Action
Dramatic action is not synonymous with plot as Aristotle would want us to believe. This is because while dramatic action refers to the totality of the dramatic activities, Burns (1990) posits that plot is the “structural principle that knits together, all the various incidents in a drama to achieve a meaningful pattern”. While dramatic action refers to what the actors do on stage, plot means the story of what the actors do. So, here, we take the whole events of the play to mean the dramatic action. Aristotle divides dramatic action into three parts namely beginning, middle and end.
THE BEGINNING
The contemporary term for what Aristotle regards as the beginning of the play is exposition. The opening scene(s) reveals the major character, his social environment and antecedent actions that may be far beyond the limit of stage resources and representation. Apart from the background and setting of the play, the beginning indicates the mood of the play. John Howard Lawson maintains that the expository scene is “the point at which dangerous decision is made” (234). He further states that the opening scenes of a play show the setting up of a goal under conditions which make the setting up of such goal seem necessary” (235). This is akin to what is referred today as the dramatic question. In Ukala’s The Slave Wife, the dramatic question can be how can Oba Ogiso beget a male child? In Oedipus The King by Sophocles, the goal is how to find out who killed Laius. The need for the search is necessary because the great pestilence being suffered by the Thebans has been linked to the killing of Laius. The beginning segment of the dramatic action is usually over when the dramatic question is made clear.
Exposition can be in form of monologue as we see in Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, or presented in form of dialogue as we have again in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The young playwright is not confined to any model, he can employ any form that he can effectively use to communicate his play’s background, setting and mood.
THE MIDDLE
The middle part of the dramatic action is the most extensive part of the play’s action. The middle now known as the rising action consists of chain of complications that appear to constitute stumbling blocks between the major character and his project or goal. When there exists a gap between the character and his objective, tension is produced. And the more constraints between the character and his project, the greater will be the dramatic tension. In performance both the characters and the spectators undergo this emotional response we call tension from moment to moment. Tension can be generated through fear of failure, mysterious occurrences, surprises, suspense and dilemma of choosing between options.
Lawson rightly posits that “the changes in the characters and environment which constitute the play’s progression lie in the rising action” (245). In this portion of the play, both the expected and the un- envisaged begin to surface. Characters make great efforts to grapple with these difficulties. The middle of the play comes to an end when the climax is attained, the climax being “the point of maximum clash of opposing wills, the test of possibilities” (245).
Another important component of the rising action is the obligatory scene.
OBLIGATORY SCENE is the scene of great expectation in a play. Lawson cites, Francisque Sarcey as describing it as that scene “which the audience (more or less clearly and consciously) foresees and desires, and the absence of which it may with reason resent” (262). Sarcey further states that “it is precisely this expectation mingled with uncertainty which is one of the charms of the theatre” . Every good playwright should strive to “provide a point of concentration toward which the maximum expectation is aroused” in his plays. Aristotle opines that in a good play, change of fortune should be brought about by reversal and recognition. The obligatory scene is the scene of recognition. In this scene, opposing forces or characters face each other in full knowledge of the matter at stake. In Qedipus The King, the scene where Oedipus gains the knowledge that he is the actual killer of Laius is the obligatory scene of the play. In Ukala’s The Slave Wife, the scene where the supposedly drowned male child of Igbon – the slave wife returns to reveal himself as Oba Ogiso’s heir – apparent, is the point of maximum expectation and possibility in that play. The audience expects and awaits that scene eagerly, and Ukala deftly weaves it into his dramatic action. That scene reveals everything. Oba Ogiso becomes aware of many things. He becomes aware that Obu – the medicine man never misrepresents the message of the gods; he becomes aware of Igbon’s innocence and the wickedness of his other wives. He becomes aware that his throne will never become vacant when he is no more. His wicked wives become aware that the gods ensure that evil never pays.
THE END
The end comprises the falling action or the denouncement and the resolution. Since the obligatory scene answers the dramatic question, the purpose of the end is to bring back equilibrium and to conclude the system of things in a reasonable manner. However, it is important to note that a good number of fine plays end almost immediately after the climax, perhaps after the great catastrophe in the case of tragedy. Many scholars view the idea of falling action as unnecessary. They see no reason in allowing a play to extend far beyond its vital action. To them, such effort usually results to anti-climax, which does not usually go down well with the audience.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 3
What does the middle of a play entail?
3.4 The Playwright, His Tasks and Qualities
The playwright is the composer, the man behind the process of play creation. According to Luis Vargas; the playwright’s “path is littered with obstacles which simply do not exist for the novelist”. This is essentially because of the enormous artistic license which is “unthinkable for the playwright but within the beck and call of the novelist. Vargas further states that “the novelist can take his time to tell his story. He can digress as often as he likes. He can spend twenty pages describing the outside of a house, and then he can take us inside and in a few sentences neatly disposes of two of his characters by murder” (22). This artistic license is inconceivable for the playwright who is guided by “dramatic time” and, therefore, has to work “with utmost economy and precision” (22). The playwright must execute his work within the modern dramatic time of not more than two and half hours.
Apart from the fore-going, the playwright has to bother about the stagability of the actions, how to create believable characters. “He has to think in terms of entrances and exits and timing with one eye on his watch. If he packs a character off the stage for a legitimate reason to collect a suitcase from the bedroom” for example, “shall we say – which enables the two remaining characters to exchange secrets not meant for the ears of the one who is absent, he must be careful that the absentee is not away longer than would be necessary to collect a suitcase unless he can think of a good excuse to cover the delay” (22).
Again the playwright thinks about how to suit words to actions. Vargas maintains that “there must be no flat passages”. To him, “It is easier to excuse a novelist his dull pages, once his characters have caught the interest of his readers, for there is always the thought that the next chapter may be better. A playwright “cannot afford one scene, one speech, in fact, one sentence which does not directly contribute to develop the plot, create tension or build up character or atmosphere” (22).
QUALITIES OF A GOOD PLAYWRIGHT
Because of the enormous tasks facing the playwright, he must possess the following qualities to enable him take up the challenges effectively. A few of these qualities are:
. A good playwright must be a great thinker. This is because the first step in play creation has to do with the formulation of concept; that is, the idea to write on. Great thinking enables the playwright to generate profound ideas.
. A good playwright must have a firm sense of direction. He must be focused. John Howard Lawson rightly points out that every play “embodies a vision, poses an ethical or emotional problem, praises heroes and laughs at fools” (vii). This implies that the dramatic action always embodies “a point of view, a judgment of human relationships”. A firm sense of direction will enable the playwright not to confuse issues. Aristotle suggests that one way of avoiding confusion in a play is to rely on a single plot. His view is that multiple plot situation can introduce extraneous material capable of derailing the playwright’s point of view. Firm direction entails possessing a good sense of order and logic.
. A good playwright must possess a very high sense of imagination. This will enable him to able to combine mental images derived from knowledge and experience to produce fresh meaning. The idea of newness of meaning or originality arises from the manner of selection and arrangement of incidents and this is where the sense of beauty and logic lies.
. A good playwright must be skilful in the use of language. He must be able to create levels of language in order to properly delineate character, establish mood, create pace and layers of meaning.
. The playwright must be a good communicator. This is because communication is the primary essence of making the theatre. If at the end of the play the spectators begin to ask one another what the playwright has said, it means that the play fails in terms of communication.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 4
Discuss any one quality a good playwright must possess.
3.5 Sources of Materials for Playwriting
The playwright has an ample stock of materials to draw from. They include the following:
. The people’s myths and folklores,
. The people’s past history,
. The people’s political activities,
. Economic conditions,
. The thinking of the age, that is, the prevailing thought of the
playwright’s period.
. Social or class relations,
. Religious activities,
. The people’s traditions,
. Dreams, etc.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 5
Where does the playwright derive the materials he uses in play
construction?
3.6 Instruments of Playwriting
Theatre is communication. In communication, people share ideas, and exchange messages. A play’s idea or message is embodied in the story which informs the play. This story is called plot in drama. So, the first tool the playwright requires is the plot. A sound plot is the starting point of a successful and interesting play. Aristotle regards plot as the soul of tragedy because, according to him, the elements that enable tragedy to achieve its effect (catharsis) reside in the plot. These elements are peripeteia (reversal) and anagnorisis (recognition). This is an incontrovertible fact because there can never be a tragedy without “a fall from grace to grass”. Plot is a quintessential tool in playwriting because it tells us what the play is all about.
According to Grebanier, the plot serves three purposes. It tells us the condition of the action, the cause of the action and the resulting action. He explains these purposes as follows:
. The condition of the action is the first significant event of the play, the event which holds the root of the cause of the action. For example (tentative) Romeo falls in love with Juliet at first sight.
. The cause of the action is the event which follows from the condition of the action, and which raises a question which the rest of the play must answer. For example, (tentative), Romeo marries Juliet.
. The resulting action will answer the question raised by the cause of the action, the question which is the chief business of the plot. For example, will Romeo find happiness with Juliet?” (89).
It is, however, important to observe that Grebanier’s proposition is for plot that follows the law of formal logic. As we have explained elsewhere, a plot can be episodic. Nonetheless, plot articulates the actions of characters and the conditions that make such actions possible.
Another vital tool in play composition is language. In fact, a play is a system of dialogue. Language is used to communicate ideas, delineate characters, clarify mood, reveal thought, describe the play’s atmosphere and environment, as well as kindle emotion.
Character is a major instrument of playwriting. A play, after all, is a pattern of representation involving the conduct of characters in relationships. There are four levels of characterization. They include physical, social, psychological and moral characterization. Physical characterization involves supplying the external attributes of the dramatic personae, including size, colour, age, height, sex, etc. Social characterization includes family relationship, economic standing, religion, profession, and in fact, all those factors that place the character in his environment”. According to Beckerman, Psychological characterization refers to the depiction of the character’s “habitual responses, attitudes, desires, motivations, likes and dislikes – the inner workings of the mind – both emotional and intellectual, which lead to action”. Moral character is revealed by the nature of character’s choices and decisions.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 6
Discuss any instrument of playwriting you know.
3.7 Guidelines for Writing a Play
. ON THE PLOT
A good play must have a clear plot. Clarity of plot makes it possible for the audience to comprehend the playwright’s point of view. It makes meaning clear and unambiguous. Vargas states that “Many a promising play has been ruined because the author, starting off with a clear idea, appears to stumble across a more promising theme, abandons his original intention and changes his mind and direction half-way through the play”. This often results to “a frustrated and disappointed audience, and a play that fails to run” (23).
To ensure effective handling of the plot, an aspiring playwright should make do with single plot, one major character or two. Before writing, he or she should break the story into bits known as synopsis. The synopsis must reveal the condition of action, the cause of action and the resulting action.
ON DRAMATIC ACTION
A good playwright fills his play with attention arresting actions. Dramatic action is at its best when it maximizes the use of conflict. Yerima (2003) posits that the “new playwright must avoid presenting an aimless, talkative bore on stage” . He argues that this situation “occurs when both the idea and conflict of the play have not been well thought out”. He maintains that “in talking too much, and not allowing action and character to play out the conflict of the play the inexperienced playwright gives room for the audience’s mind to wander, and sometimes loose totally, the thematic thrust of the playwright” (38). The point here is that conflict is at the heart of drama. Every aspiring playwright should note this well. He or she should know that a play engages attention if every imaginable obstacle is placed between the protagonist and his goal. Without sufficient conflict, “if there are no twists, turns and surprises up there on the stage, you will very soon have an inattentive and yawning audience out in front” (Vargas, 19).
ON CHARACTERIZATION
Aristotle opines that character is a by-product of action. In acknowledgement of this fact, Lawson cites W.T. Price as saying that “characters can be brought out in no other way than by throwing people into relations” (280). Character can also be revealed by pitching man against the supernatural forces as well as man against himself. In regard to this, Kitto writes that “the essence of the old tragedy was not one character joined in conflict with another but the hero facing his own destiny or playing out an inner drama of his soul” (31). Character is, according to Beckerman, “a summarized perception” or, according to Styan, “the impression left by the action of the dramatist personae” (210).
Also, the new playwright should know that characters are differentiated from one another by three means, namely; variation in manner of behaviour, given circumstances including social status, and physical image – the external appearance. He should be aware that stock character type emerges from rigid social and temperamental features, while the dynamic ones are marked by behavioural changes due to new awareness or revelation or change in social arrangement.
ON LANGUAGE CUM DIALOGUE
Every good playwright must be conscious of language. Theatre is communication. This implies that any playwright who wishes to communicate must use the living language of his people. Ahmed Yerima, remarks that it is “the management of diction, the choice of correct and meaningful words which would not only give meaning but say exactly what the playwright intends his characters to say” (40). The playwright who uses esoteric language, that is, language filled with strange and far-fetched imagery and metaphor no doubt has a specialized audience in mind, and certainly not the larger community of the average literate persons. Drama is a temporal art; and as such, the audience has no time to figure out meaning. Language is an essential tool of communication and should remain so in all its usages.
Every play exists in dialogue form, that is, in conversational manner. How a playwright manages his or her dialogue determines the success or failure of the play. A clear, charming and riveting dialogue enhances memorization on the part of the performers, and comprehension on the part of the spectators. A dialogue that is incoherent and clumsily put together is a complete bore to the audience.
QUALITIES OF GOOD DIALOGUE
. A good dialogue should be effective. To be effective is to perform its basic functions. And the basic function of every dialogue is to communicate.
. Good dialogue must reveal character, mood and setting of the play, as well as the playwright’s point of view.
. Good dramatic dialogue must be economical. The young playwright must be aware that dramatic time in modern times is not more than two hours and therefore should not waste words. To be economical with words is to be precise, to avoid the normal interventions and unnecessary repetitions.
. A good dialogue should embody gestural possibilities. According to Beckerman, stage dialogue should be “written with elasticity so that a performer’s imagination has room to expand into action” (234).
. A good dialogue kindles emotion.
. A good dramatic dialogue must help to enhance the progression of the plot and the dramatic action.
. A good dialogue helps to create rhythm and tempo in a performance.
Writing a good dialogue is not an easy task. In fact, many a good playwright distrusts his or her dialogue, never satisfied with it. A good playwright never concludes his or her play in a hurry. He or she writes and rewrites dialogue, always feeling that more effort could yield good result.
SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE 7
List and discuss two qualities of a good dramatic dialogue.
4.0 CONCLUSION
We explained that playwriting is a creative process of uniting experience and imagination. We said that a play is a system of dialogue and that the action it embodies is usually a portion of the story that informs it. We explained further that a playwright must be a great thinker, a skilful user of language and a good observer in order to be able to generate penetrating idea, communicate effectively and represent human qualities well.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit, we examined the concept of playwriting. We explained what a play means, the personality of the playwright and his tasks. We also looked at the various sources of the playwright’s materials, the structure of a play, as well as articulate some guidelines for writing a good play.
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
What is a play?
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Aristotle (1973) “The Poetics”. In European Theories of the Drama. Ed. Barret H .Clark.
Bulton, Majorie (1980). The Anatomy or Drama. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Burns, Edward (1990). Character, Acting and Being on the Pre- Modern Stage. London: Macmillian.
Duruaku, A. B. C. (1997). A Handbook on Drama and Theatre. Owerri: Colon Concepts.
Grebanier, Bernard (1979). Playwriting. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Kitto, H. D. F. (1973). Greek Tragedy. London: Methuen.
Yerima, Ahmed (2003). Basic Techniques in Playwriting. Ibadan: Kraft.
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