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)