Playwrights Sprint 1/3 and the Life of the Object

Day 3

FIRST:

A treat or torture! You’re going to hear your scripts read aloud! I’ve changed the names on them and cleaned up Julian’s so hopefully there will be no embarrassment. They’ll be read by the acting students as cold reads.

After the read, you’ll REVISE. So, having heard it, what is wrong, and what can be fixed. This will be your final revision and then this is done. Send it to me as

your_name_fight_final.celtx

and the subject line reads STAC Play Intensive 3.

Now, you’ve seen the weird found object. You’re going to write the life of it.

THE LIFE OF THE OBJECT:

This is to be written in Screenplay format! So far you’ve been writing Stage Plays, which are driven by text. A screenplay is driven by visuals - remember that.

You have to write three moments from the life of this object - that means at least three scenes. How did the object come to be? How was it received? How was it lost? How was it re-found? Was it inherited?

We’re not interested in the life of the people as much as we are the relationship of the people as transmitted to each other through the object. The scene from Pulp Fiction, marvelous as it is, is all backstory. Try to avoid this in your scene - make your scenes active in the moment.

Write your script, label it

your_name_object.celtx

and email it to me - the subject line is STAC Play Intensive 4.

The rewrite must get to me by 2:30 (this is realistic. If you were on a film set and you were called to rewrite a scene you’d have a limited amount of time to knock it out).

Life of the Object is due tomorrow (Thursday) in the evening. So, you’ve two days to work on it.