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Playwriting

Students stuck on “what do I write?”

These playwriting activities are all about sparking ideas. Use prompts, quick exercises, and creative challenges to get students thinking, imagining, and writing without the pressure of a full script.

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Playwriting Devised Theatre

Devising Exercise: Playing With Change

“Devising: A project that starts with an idea/concept/source material rather than a completed script” The culminating activity for collaboration in the drama classroom is to have your students work...
Playwriting Playwright Spotlights

5 questions with Clint Snyder

We have a great community of amazing playwrights here at Theatrefolk that contribute to our collection of middle and high school plays. We hope you’ll enjoy this peek behind the curtain as they...
Playwriting Writing Prompts

Picture Inspiration

Use a picture as a jumping off point for writing. Sometimes all students need is a little push to get the writing ball rolling. Use pictures for that push. You can have students create source...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Inner Monologue

One of the best activities for gathering writing ideas is observation. How are you experiencing the world around you? A great way to practice this is to have your students describe your classroom...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting & Acting Exercise: Channel that Fear

Fear is such a wonderful motivator for characters – with both positive and negative connotations. How many of us know someone who won’t do something because of fear? Who won’t get on stage, or get...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Indoor Clouds

Sometimes you just come across something that is Wicked Cool. That’s right, I capitalized both words and they weren’t at the beginning of a sentence. I did it, I own it. That’s how cool I think...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Hurdling the First Line

Do your student playwrights struggle with getting started? Sometimes the hardest part is coming up with that first line, because there’s nothing more daunting to a new writer than the blank page....
Playwriting Writing Prompts

4 Great Picture Prompts for Playwrights

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Picture Prompts are a great tool in a playwright’s arsenal to inspire creative...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Subtext

Subtext is a glorious medium. It adds depth to a scene. There’s the conversation that two characters are having, and there’s the conversation underneath the conversation the two characters are...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

Exercise: Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast

““I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day.” “I can’t believe that!” said Alice. “Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.” Alice...
Games, Exercises, & Activities

Eavesdropping Exercise: Where do ideas come from?

Ideas are not magical ponies. They don’t appear instantly. Writers know they have to look for ideas. The more they look for them, the more ideas they have. The key with ideas is not to focus on the...
Playwriting

Where do Ideas Come From?

The biggest obstacle to writing a play often comes before the first word. It happens in the idea stage. I want to write, but my ideas are stupid. I know I could write something great but where do I...
Playwriting Playwriting Exercises

Playwriting Exercise: Picture Prompts

Location, location, location , a scene can totally be driven by where it’s set. Picture prompts serve as a great starting point. To that end, write a scene between two characters that use the...
Playwriting

Emotional Attachment

You can’t be emotional about a thing. That’s a common refrain. You can’t feel anything about an object or a building because they’re just things. They have no feelings. They can’t return or respond...
Playwriting Writing Prompts

Picture Prompt: The Unexplainable

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. You just have no idea...
Playwriting Writing Prompts

Picture Prompt: What are they talking about?

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Here, we’re looking at a...
Playwriting Writing Prompts

Picture Prompt: The Portrait

Ideas can come from anything and everything. But it’s always a good idea to give students a jumping off point. Pictures are a great jumping off point for creative writing. Today we’re looking at...