To Look For in Scripts

Linearity

Cause and effect; what causes what and why.

Juxtapositions

Comparison of scenes, images or events that follow each other.

Expressionism

Distortion to show subjective feelings.

Multiple Plots

Each plot has it's own actions and turning points.

Climaxes

Emotional high points.

Turning Points

Events which make objectives change. Five major ones including "the happening" and the resolution.

Foils

Function is to be contrasted with another character. The differences embody themes.

Reflectors

Function is to give perspectives or opinions on other characters or ideas or events.

The Beginning

Ideas are introduced, dramatization begins.

Themes

Ideas running though the play including through its story. Easiest to see in scenes that are not necessary to the story of the play.

Exposition

Information only revealed in dialogue

Dramatic Irony

Irony resulting from the audience knowing more than the characters.

Analogues

Not just characters. Similar situations, relationships or characters.

Statements

Opinions and questions that are illustrated by the dramatization.

Raisonneurs

Purpose in the play is to speak as the voice of reason.

Dramatic Questions

Questions in the mind of the audience about what will happen in the future.

Motifs

Recurrent images, anything that is repeated but is NOT part of the story.

The World of the Play

Society, morality, psychology and aesthetic reality unique to a certain play.

Resolution

The event that ends the last dramatized objective.

The Ending

The most important part of any script.

Sequence

The order that information is revealed affects meaning.

"The Happening"

The precipitating event that causes the first dramatized objective.

The Title

Think about how this affects the audience experience with the play. What does it have to do with the play?

Special Characters

Usually minor characters: Analogues, Foils, Reflectors, Raisonneurs

Subtext

What characters are thinking that they are not saying.

Actions/Objectives

What characters are trying to get; what they're really doing.

Dramatization/"The Action"

What's show; that which is acted out.

Dramatic Conflict

When an action hits an obstacle; when a character wants something but can't get it.