 Hello, I'm Rachel Atkins, and I'm a playwright and a teaching artist, and I'm here to teach you a series of lessons that are going to help you to write your own play. So the first lesson, we're going to start by looking at character point of view. All you're going to need is something to write with and something to write on. It could be pen and paper, or you could be typing on something, you could even do it on your phone if you want. So before you do any kind of writing, including playwriting, it can be helpful to do some brainstorming, to get some ideas so that when you start to write your play, you've got some things to get going with. So the first thing we're going to do is brainstorm some characters. In a play, a character is anyone that an actor can portray. So it can be a human, but it doesn't have to be. A character could be an animal, a character could be an alien, or an imagined creature of some kind. A character could even be an inanimate object, depending on what kind of play you're writing. Characters could be real people like the president or your mother. It could be a type of person like an astronaut or a bossy big sister. They can be people you know from your real life. They can be characters that you might think of from books or movies or they can be things that you completely invent. So what you're going to start to do is brainstorm a list of characters, three to five characters that you might like to see in a play. I'm going to give you a short list to start, but you should add on at least three more. If you have the ability to pause right now, pause while you make your list. And I'll pause for a moment while you do some brainstorming of a list of characters. Now that you have your list of characters, now you're going to brainstorm another list. Leave yourself some space on your character list because as we're brainstorming other ideas, you might think of more characters and you'll want to be able to add on to that list. The next essential element of a play are problems or conflicts. A problem or a conflict is something that the characters have to deal with. And every play needs one. A problem or a conflict can be something really big like a war. It could be something small like the jar of peanut butter is empty. A problem can be serious. It can be silly. It can be something real that you've experienced in your own life or that you've seen other people experience, or it could be something that you imagine that you make up. The list of problems or conflicts that you brainstorm can be related to any of the characters you just thought of, but they don't have to. As you brainstorm your list of problems, if it makes you think of new characters, you should definitely write those on your list as well. I'm going to give you a list of a few different problems to start, but you should add on at least three more problems or conflicts. And I'll pause for a moment so that you can make your list. So now you have a list of potential characters for a play. You have a list of potential problems or conflicts for your play. Now a play is usually not about just a boring, ordinary time when nothing happens. Plays are usually about times when something significant happens, something out of the ordinary. So now we're going to be brainstorming some important dramatic events that might be what your play is about. Again, these events could be something real that you've experienced, but they also can be imagined. They can be serious or they can be silly. They can be things that are related to any of the characters you just listed or any of the problems you just listed, but they don't have to be. And if while you're brainstorming these events, if they make you think of any additional problems or characters, you should definitely add those on to those lists that you've got. We're brainstorming, so there's no right or wrong here. Any ideas that you come up with are good and any idea can potentially help you to write your play. So the first set of events that you're going to brainstorm is you're going to think of some significant firsts. For example, first date, first day of school. There I just gave you two. Now you're going to make a list of significant firsts. Again, it can be serious or silly. They can be real things you've experienced or not. It doesn't matter. You're going to make your list of firsts. You're going to add on any problems or conflicts or characters that your firsts might make you think of. And I'm going to pause and show some up on the screen for you to get you going, but you should come up with at least three more firsts. So you have your list of significant firsts. Now you're going to brainstorm a list of bests, significant bests. For example, the best gift you ever got, the best friend you ever had. There might be some overlap between some of your ideas for firsts and some of your ideas for bests. And that's cool. There can be some new ones as well. Same as before, anytime you're brainstorming a new list if it gives you any ideas for firsts, for problems, for characters, go ahead and add those onto the lists. Your significant bests might connect to anything else you've already brainstormed, but they don't have to. I'm going to show you a list of a couple examples. You should add on at least three more significant bests. And I will pause while you make your list. So you have your list of firsts, you have your list of bests. You're going to make one more brainstorming list. You're going to make a list of significant worsts. So you had bests, you have to have worsts. So for example, worst fight you ever had, worst game you ever played. Again, firsts, bests and worsts, there's often a lot of overlap. So you might think of some worsts that are the same as your firsts or your bests, or there might be some on those other lists that work for this too, but try to come up with some new ones. Again, these can be serious, they can be silly, they can be real things that have happened to you, but they don't have to be. They might relate to anything else that you have on any of your other lists, but they don't have to. We're just brainstorming, trying to get as many ideas out as possible. So I'm gonna show you a list of examples of possible worsts. Please add on at least three more ideas of your own and I will pause while you write your list of worsts. Now you've done all your brainstorming, now you're going to do some writing using some of these ideas. You're going to choose one event from your first, best or worst list. The event you choose might have something to do with a character on your character list. It might have something to do with one of your problems. It doesn't have to. Your, the event that you choose might be something real that happened to you, but it doesn't have to. It could be something that happened to somebody else you know, or it could be something completely imagined. You're going to choose one event and you're going to write a monologue from the point of view of the main character, the person who this event happened to. A monologue is when one character speaks continuously without interrupting. Like right now I'm doing a monologue because I'm just talking and nobody's answering me. When you have two or more people talking together, that's dialogue, we'll get to that in another lesson. Today you're focusing on a monologue. Your monologue can be what the character is thinking to herself while the event is happening. It could be her telling the story of what happened after the event or it could be what she's speaking out loud during the event. Whichever approach you choose, the monologue should communicate what the first best or worst event is, what the character did during that event and how they're feeling about it. Your monologue should be about a paragraph long, so five to 10 sentences. And I will pause while you are writing your monologue. So again, what you're really thinking about is the main character's point of view, what they did and how they're feeling about whatever that event is. I'm going to pause while you write your monologue. The main character's point of view about what happened during that first best worst event. Now you're going to write a second monologue from a different character's point of view about the same event. So you really want to think about someone who has a completely different perspective, a completely different point of view about what happened. Characters having different points of view, having different perspectives in a play is part of what makes a play interesting. So we want to practice expressing different points of view, different feelings, different ideas about the same event. So your event that you wrote about in your monologue might already have somebody else involved. For example, if you wrote the monologue about the worst fight that this character ever had, your second character could be the person they were fighting with. But it doesn't have to be. It could be a bystander or a witness to the fight. It might be the character who tried to stop the fight from happening. It's up to you. If your monologue and your event didn't have another character already involved, then you get to use your imagination. You might think about who else might've been there. Remembering that your second character doesn't have to be a human being. For example, if your monologue was about the first time someone drove a car, the second character could be the car. So again, it's up to you who that second character is, but it should be somebody whose point of view is really different from the first character. So you're gonna write the second monologue in the same way. You can choose whether it's an internal monologue, what the second character is thinking during the event, or whether it's something that they are speaking out loud. It could even be the character who the first character is talking to if you wrote your first monologue so that that character was telling the story of what happened to somebody else. The second character could be the listener from that monologue as long as they've got a really different point of view. So now you're gonna write the second monologue same instructions. You're gonna write about a paragraph, and I want you to really focus on expressing the same story of what happened in that first worst best event, how that character felt, what that character did, but really looking at the ways that it is different from the first character. And again, I'm going to pause so you can write your monologue. Congratulations, you have written your first set of monologues. You've done your first playwriting lesson. So now, if you can, find somebody to read them to because the thing about plays is that they are meant to be read and spoken out loud. If you can find somebody else who will listen to your two monologues, I recommend that when you read them, read one of them sitting and read the other one standing because you're working with different points of view and so you'll be using your body to show different points of view as well as using the words of your monologue. Again, my name is Rachel Atkins. Thank you so much for joining me with this playwriting lesson and I hope to see you again for more playwriting.