Forwards and Backwards David Ball, Notes (script analysis)
action and heap (reaction)
notice actions that drive the plot forwards
requires keen eye for moments that cause shifts
each action effectively leads ot another
chain reaction tha tconstructs the story's arc
Ball calls this the causal chain
note how actions begin and how they evolve
triggers and heaps
heaps are then triggers for next heaps
analyze what incites each action
action occurs when something happens that makes or permits soemthing else to happen
one event requires a second events, connected. Otherwise it is not an action
try to read a play by its actions, it is difficult
sometimes this domino effect divides. A triggers leads to two or more heaps. Now it is two trains of dominos that both must be followed separately.
if you cannot find the connection between one domino and the next (why or how one makes the next fall) then there is a problem either in the writing or in the reading.
David Ball calls this method: sequential analysis
most useful when done backwards. from end to the start.
going backwards exposes that which is required
when you discover an event you cannot connect to a previous event you know there is a problem to solve
make no jumps, dont miss links.
stasis = unhcaning stability where all forces balance each other = no movement
Intrusion is forcing/ pushing in.
Stasis at the beggining. For motion to start their must be an intrusion.
goal in every play is to reestablish stasis, same as the original, or a new one. Major forces of story get what they want or forced to stop trying.
scrutinize the difference between the world in stasis and the world in action
intrusion is an event that causes another event - hence action.
charcter or characters try to right things. Try again. until inally succeed or can no longer try or are defatted.
sometimes a new stasis is not what the cahracter hoped it would be
stasis, intrusion, battle for new stasis initiated by intrusion.
follow the dominos + know the goals of the battle, the new stasis being sought
CONFLICT
always need to support the pretense of impersonation. eg. reflect recognizable human behaviour
A human being talks to get what they want
In drama a character who speaks wants something or would not speak
speech devoid of motivation of wanting is blatantly implausible
what i wnat and what resists my having it (obstacle) work against each other to create conflict.
DISTINCT FROM NOVEL"S CONFLICT might be free will vs destiny. youth vs old age, the city vs the country. Play is between want and Obstacle.
motivation (which an actor will remember) not set against an obstacle results in slack, automatic lack of conflict.
do not really know a playuntil you see how eery word is intended by its speaker to overcome some abstacle to what the speaker wants.
issue can of major import or trivial.
Obstacle can be anything. From what someone else wants (motivation: I want to be king. Obstacle: you want to stay king)
From circumstances
From our own inabliities or misgivings
From chance or fate
In every case the obstacle must be something I am willing to fight
I love you (motivation). You think i am a creep (obstacle) So I say something to try changin your attitude (care for a ride in my mercedes?)
You want a job (motivation). Interviewer must selcet from thirty appliants (obstacle) SO you try to impres the interviewer (ive done this kind of work before)
if do not say good monring to yoour neighbor they may think you don't like them. Even habitual actions lauched in attempt to get something against something resiisting your getting it.
TYPES OF DRAMATIC CONFLICT
1) Me against myself. I want your stamps. Stealing is wrong. If i want them badly enoguh i will overcome the moral stance against stealing. (me vs myself)
2) Me against other individuals. I want stamps, you guard them with a bat.
3) Me against society. I stole your stamps. Now wanted byt he FBI, hunted. I broke law. SOciety chases me. Adversary not you, I am fighting for freedom, fighting against society.
4) Me against fate, the universe, gods etc. Hard battle to win. Not. a conflict likely to result from stamp stealing.
**the better the play the more the motivation is irresistible and the obstacle is immovable.**
Know the Overriding conflict and what type of conflict is involved each instant of the play.
A character talks to maneuver charcters in such a way that the obstacle to the want is removed.
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Point by point through script know what information revealed and what has been withheld. Do not reveal information prematurely. Bridge between what the audience knows and doesn't is bridged too early at your peril
a core of dramatic tension resides in keeping information from the audience.
THeatrical means not boring
jokes, sad ending, evocative language. suspense, interest, fun, feeling, importance, noevelty, fights, lovers first or last times meeting, death, change
good writers put their most important material into their most theatrical moments. Identify the theatrical moments and you will also identify what the playwright considers important
EXPOSITION
connect to action
try to disocver connections between exposition and action when reading plays
messengers can reveal information that only one character will know.
an important charcter reveals expositional inofrmation as a took to get another character to do something
use the past to propel, not merely explain present action
techniques have to be used sparingly and selectively
reveals nor more nor no less than everything necessary to fathom the beginnings of the play's action
arouse in the audience a thirst to find out what's next
A forward is anything that arouses an audience's interest in things yet to come.
hooked not on the present but the future
load scenes with forwards so no mater how strong or weak the scene the audience is eager to see what is next
half the pleasure is in anticipation
if we create an elaborate set of forwards to concentrate attention on something, that something must be crucial
moment to moment and major forwards
play promises the major opposing forces will meet head on. anticipation of this can hold the audience. Can even tease by getting close to confrontation and then pulling them away again.
audience must be maneuvered, wooed, cajoled into wanting to be witness
sometimes the promise of a forward is not fulfilled, that is allowed.
soemtimes we are eager to see characters react to discovering information that we already know (d.i)
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*Dramatic tension requires that the audience desire to find out what is coming up. The*
*greater the desire, the greater – and more active – the audience's involvement. Playwrights employ*
*many techniques – forwards – to increase the thirst for what's coming up. Such techniques are also*
*a key to spotting elements the playwright considers important.*
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in scripts characters are skeletal accumulations of carefully selected traits. - the nature of any stage character is heavily determined by the actor in the part.
bones - carefully selected character traits included in the script are revealed via action.
what the character wants, what is in the characters way,
what the character does or is willing to do to satisfy the want
characters description of one another cannot be trusted
description must be validated by examination of action. Action either verifies description, rendering description redundant, or it reveals that description is wrong. Redundant or wrong, that is all description can be
What a character does is half a revelation, why is the other half
I like dogs, but not cute dogs, I kick cute dogs
avowed action/ why versus true action/ why
character revealed by examining action/ what and action/ why
further revealed in difference between avowed action/ why and true action/ why
words are suspect when they merely describe
characterization is partly in the eye of the beholder
characters dont change any more than we change in real life
an attitude may change, or method. more likely it is the situation that has changed. a better or more effcient or easier or more acceptable way arises of satisfying the same character trait.
a changed situation calls for different tactics
first specifies and limits
second expands, evokes
communicaiton to describe, second employs image, concerned with our reaction to the description
if the title contains an image, know its implications and hwo they evoke the shape and or nature of the play
dont ignore title. it might be your key to the script
an image is the use of soemthing we know to tell us about soemthing we dont know
theme is an abstract concept which part or all of the story is "about"
a peom shoudl not mean but be. (archibald macleish)
a lot can be understood from family
consider what the orginal audience thought and felt about the world portrayed in the play
better read a play more than a few times before trying to do anything with it