 I'm Rachel Atkins. I'm a playwright and a teaching artist, and this is a lesson to help you to write your own play. Today, I'm going to be giving you a series of prompts to help you write your own short play. So you're going to need something to write with or something and something to write on. It can be paper and pen or it could be something electronic, computer. You can even write on your phone. You might want to have your phone nearby even if you're going to write on something else so that you can take a picture of some of the prompts that I'm going to show you so that you're able to write at your own pace. If you've already done some of my earlier lessons, you know some of the important elements that make a really strong play. If you haven't taken any of those lessons, that's okay. I'm going to give you a reminder right now. Some of the elements that make a really strong play, you have clear, distinct characters who have different points of view. All of your characters have objectives. They have something that they want and those objectives, those things that they want are specific, they're immediate, they're important and they have consequences for the characters if they don't get them. There are different actions, different tactics that characters use to get what they want no matter what their objectives are. And every line of dialogue that you write should be really specific, should have new information to raise the stakes and make things more important for characters. You can also use stage directions, putting things in parentheses to help us know how a character is feeling or what they're doing while they're talking. If you've done any of those previous lessons, you can use any of the ideas that you came up with from them in this play that you're about to write. If you didn't, or if you just feel like starting new, that's great. You can use any ideas you want to write your own play. If you happen to be doing this lesson with one or more other writers, you can do this activity by passing the paper around. You'll be doing the same prompts but everybody will start at the same time and then you'll keep passing your paper so that you'll be adding on to each other's plays. If you have another writer to do that with, that's great. If you don't, no problem. You can do this whole series where you are writing every single part. I'll try to remind you at points when you could pass it though, if you have somebody else to write with. So I'm gonna give you a series of prompts. This is where you're gonna want to have something to write with or on or where you're gonna wanna be able to take pictures. You might write as I'm giving you the prompts but I might go more quickly than your writing because everybody writes at their own pace. So if you are writing more slowly than I'm prompting, don't worry about it. All of the prompts will appear on the screen so that you can just track them as they appear. Again, by writing them down and taking a picture, you can even let me go through all of the prompts, then take a picture of the whole thing and just wait and do your writing when I'm done talking or you can start to do your writing while I'm talking and then finish up while I'm done. I'll try to pace it out so that you can take notes on what you need so that you've got all the prompts by the end and you can write your play. Your first prompt is setting. Write the word setting. You're going to come up with an idea of a place where your play will happen. Write a one to two sentence description of the place where your play takes place. You wanna include what the specific place is. You can include time of day, time of year, time period if it's relevant. You're writing one to two sentences to describe the setting of your play, whatever that is for you. Here's your next prompt. You're going to come up with your first character for your play. The character should be somebody who belongs in the setting that you just described who might be there. Although you might have an idea for somebody who really doesn't belong there and that's fine too. You're going to write the name of this character and a one sentence description of who this person is. Although of course a character doesn't have to be a person. It could be an animal. It could be an imaginary creature. It could be an inanimate object. You're going to come up with one character, the first character who will be in the setting of your play, write their name and write a one sentence description of who they are. If you're writing with somebody else, this is where you will pass your paper to the next person. When you get somebody else's paper you read what they've written and now you're going to add on to that play. If you're not passing the paper if you're writing on your own, great. You're going to keep going with the next prompt. The next prompt is to come up with a second character for this play. The second character should also belong in the setting that you've described and they should have some kind of relationship to character one. They might have a relationship to start with that person or they might have a relationship that develops in the play that you're going to write. So you're coming up with a second character for your play. You're writing the name of that character and you're writing a one sentence description of who that character is. Next, you're going to think about the character's objectives, the conflict between these characters. Each of your characters wants or needs something from the other character. What is it? The objectives should create a conflict between your characters. The characters can't both get what they want. Remember that every objective should be immediate, important, specific, and have consequences. You're going to write a sentence for each character describing their objective and why they need or want it. Remember, each character should have their own objective. If you're writing in this play with other writers or with another writer, now you should pass the paper again. If you're doing this past the paper version, when you get this next paper, read everything that's been written from the beginning and then you're going to add on to this play. If you're writing this on your own, great. You're going to keep going with the next prompt. Your next prompt is to write the opening stage directions for your play. Remember that you put stage directions in parentheses. You're going to write one to two sentences describing what's happening on stage when the lights go up. This is going to be a pretty short play so you don't need a lot of setup. You should start with the action, start with the characters on stage or making an entrance, start with something happening. In parentheses, write one to two sentences of the opening stage directions describing what's happening when the lights go up on your play. For your next prompt, you're going to start writing dialogue. Write a total of six lines of dialogue, three lines for each character going back and forth. It's up to you who speaks first. You can use stage directions within these lines if you want. For each line, write the character's name, then a colon and then their dialogue. If you're using stage directions, it goes in parentheses at the beginning of the character's line. So you're writing three lines for each character going back and forth for a total of six lines of dialogue between the two characters. If you're doing the past the paper version of this activity, now you should pass the paper after you've written the dialogue. Again, when you get a new play, you read everything from the beginning and then you'll add on to that play. For your next prompt, you're going to write a short monologue for either one of the characters. The monologue should be related to the character's objective. Remember a monologue is a little bit of a longer speech where one character speaks without interruption. The monologue could be for the next character whose turn it would be to speak in your dialogue going back and forth, but it doesn't have to be. Your monologue could add on to the last character speaking. So it's up to you whose monologue it is. You're going to write a monologue of up to four lines for either one of the characters related to their objective. If you're doing the pass the paper version, after you write the monologue, you should pass the paper and again, read the whole play that you get to add on to it. For your next prompt, you're going to write a one line response to the monologue from the other character. So whichever character was not speaking the monologue, they get one line to respond to what the character who was doing the monologue said. After the one line response, something happens. You're going to write another set of stage directions. Something happens on stage. This could be something extraordinary like a bank robbery or it could be something ordinary like a phone ringing. Whatever happens, it should make sense in the world of the play. You're going to put these stage directions in parentheses and write one to two sentences describing that event. If you're doing the pass the paper version, you've written the one line response and the stage directions and then you're going to pass the paper. For your next prompt, you're going to write two lines of dialogue, one for each character. The dialogue might respond to what just happened in your stage directions or it might respond to the previous dialogue. Again, it's up to you who speaks first. Each character gets one line of dialogue. So you're writing a total of two lines of dialogue back and forth. If you're doing the pass the paper version of this activity, you should now pass the paper so that the original writer gets their play back. So no matter how many people you're writing with you should wind up with the play that you started. Everybody now gets to end their play using as much dialogue and as many stage directions as you need. So no matter where you are in your play right now you're going to write an ending for it. It can be short, it can be long, it is up to you but you can use as much dialogue or monologue or stage directions to end your play. When you have finished your play write the words end of play at the end and then go back to the top and give your play a title. Congratulations, you have written the play or maybe you haven't finished it yet but that's okay. When I'm done talking you can now go off with those prompts and take as much time as you need to write at your own pace. When you're done writing your play you should find someone to read it out loud with you or even better get two people and have them read it for you so that you can hear your work. Even better with this one if you have a bunch of stage directions get three people. One person to read the stage directions and the other people, two people to read the characters of the play so you can hear everything out loud. I'm gonna show you those prompts again all in one shot so that if you didn't get to take note of all of them or you were writing at a slower pace and you didn't catch them all you'll be able to see them. So once you've got all the prompts again you can keep writing at your own pace. If you finished your play or when you finished it using my prompts you might even decide to go back and expand what you've written into something longer. It is totally up to you. Here's Rachel Atkins. I thank you so much for joining me. I hope you feel a real sense of accomplishment because you just wrote a whole play, well done. Thanks and I hope to see you again.