Playwriting Exercise: The Empty Space

“I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged”

Peter Brook

I love a bare stage. There is something quite magical about walking onto a stage, looking out at the empty house. It is, for me, a place that can be anywhere, any time. It is a place that can ring with laughter or be so incredibly still. In my quite short stint as an actor, I really never had many experiences in “proper” theatres. I performed in barns, on gym floors, in make shift cobbled together spaces. I toured the fringe festival circuit for six years and I worked in every meaning of the phrase “empty space.” But I always felt the magic. An empty space can become a bare stage in an instant. Bring in an audience and you have a theatre.

*Exercise: *

Write a scene that takes place in an empty space. No props, no costumes, just the space. Where is it? What happens? Who enters, and who leaves? Revel in the empty space.