Dramatic Scenes

Great dramatic scenes all have structure, just as a complete work has.

1. The beginning, what the character wants.
2. The middle, or rising conflict, who or what that gets in the way.
3. The ending, the surprise outcome known as 'the turn.'

The dramatic conflict of the middle seems fairly easy to grasp. Yet, a soft choice for the beginning often leads to a lot of yelling and demands, but not much real drama, and no real chance for the scene to turn. The secret is in defining the goal.

The character's goal at the scene level is a specific objective, achieveable, & measurable. It includes taking positive action.

For clarity's sake, it's wise to state the goal exactly on the nose.

Let me give you an example from personal experience.

A short play I wrote called "Party Girls" was just produced at the Bloomington Playwrights Project. I'd done significant rewrites with the director and the cast during the early rehearsal period, but then didn't see a run through any time in tech rehearsal, trusting that all the basics were in place. The setting is in a side yard of a house where young high schoolers are partying. Opening night I was mortified that there was no sound to establish a sense of space, which meant no crickets, no dance music from the just off-stage party, no ring tone from the girl's cell. No sense of direction, or that the girls were on their way to a party.

Wait a minute. True, the absence of sound was deafening, but I'm ashamed to admit that somewhere in the the rewrites I'd dropped the girls' objective. This pair of teenage girls are on their way to a party, and the entire short is what happens between the edge of the yard and the back door. Nothing's going to stop them. The throughline is very simple, yet very specific. But I'd dropped the ball at the script level. No one in the audience knew where the girls were, where they were going or why. Thankfully, enough bazaar things happen in the first couple of the minutes that energy didn't sag.

Even so, I added two lines (now the fourth and fifth lines of the piece):

Kiki-I didn't even want to come to the party.
Hillary--Well I do. Come on!

The next night, the performance was so much better. Even without the sound design, we all knew exactly what was going on. And when the sounds were there the third night, even better.

TIP: As my friend Jennifer VanSijll says, "clarity trumps."