Writing

Free writing can be a great way to get your students into the drama class mindset. They have to pause, focus, and write for a specific amount of time without stopping or getting distracted. For this exercise, the topic is “your ideal future.” If students could have their ultimate dream lives, what would they look like? They’ll describe every detail of this ideal life. You can use the basic part of this activity as a bellwork exercise, a writing warm-up, or an activity to help students with social-emotional life skills like goal setting. Then, you can use the extension exercises found after the main instructions to have your students go deeper into the work. Feel free to adjust the wording of the basic instructions as needed depending on your students and their needs. Set a timer for your chosen time (between 5 and 10 minutes) and give your students time interval announcements as necessary (“Three minutes remaining,” “One minute remaining,” and so on). Free Writing Instructions• You will have five to ten minutes to free write, stream-of-consciousness style. This means to simply write whatever comes to your mind, as quickly as possible. No editing, going back, or second-guessing your thoughts. If it comes into your brain, write it. Write in full sentences, but don’t worry too much about spelling or grammar. Just get your thoughts down on the page. • Write in whatever method is easiest for you — handwriting, typing, talk-to-text, seated, or standing. Just don’t disturb your fellow classmates. • Your topic is your ideal future. If you had your ideal life where all your dreams have come true, what would that life look like? Go into detail. What are you doing? What are you wearing? What’s an average day in your life like? Who do you interact with? What brings you joy? No aspect is too minor. • Write in present tense like you’re already living your ideal life. For example, “I am doing _____ and it’s amazing. I go to _____ every day. I eat _____ for breakfast. I’m wearing _____ and I look fantastic.” • Avoid “I would like to,” “I wish,” or “I want” statements, unless it’s something like, “I go wherever I want, whenever I want” or “Whatever I wish for comes true.” In this ideal future, you’ve got everything you could want or wish for. • Don’t worry about what anyone else is describing in their ideal life. Everyone’s will be unique. Once students have completed the free writing session, have them complete one or more of the following extension exercises: • Focus on one aspect of your ideal future and go deeper. Choose one area and write for an additional five minutes about one of the following topics: your career, love life, physical health and activity, family or home life, social life, spiritual life, or whatever area you’d like to excel in. Tie it back to your initial ideal future writing piece. • Use your notes to create a scene of a moment from your ideal future’s daily life. It can be a monologue, a partner scene, a group scene — whatever you’d like. • Create a fictional character that lives this ideal life and write a scene of a moment from their life. (Some students like this option as it’s less personal.) • Respond to the following exit slip question: What is one small action you could do today to help you on the path to achieving your ideal life? • If you’re currently studying or performing in a show, write out your character’s ideal future where they’re living the life they want and talk about in the show. Don’t worry about whether your character actually achieves this goal at the end of the play. If you need to, you can write it as if they’re imagining living their dream life (still in the present tense). Having this idea in your mind while you’re performing can help to make your character’s desires more urgent, and may help you play your role in a stronger fashion. • If you’re currently working on writing an original play or scene, write out your main character’s ideal future. Then, figure out how to throw a wrench into that plan. This can help you create conflict for your character. Create a mind map that illustrates various aspects of your character’s ideal future — one aspect of awesome per section. Then, write out two to three potential problems that could arise for each aspect. Choose one of these and write a scene in which your main character is foiled, distracted, or delayed from achieving their goal.

It’s fun and interesting to imagine alternate endings to our favourite musicals. What if Annie had ended up being adopted by Lily and Rooster in Annie? What if the Von Trapp family wasn’t able to leave Austria in The Sound of Music? What if Amber won the Miss Teenage Hairspray pageant crown instead of Little Inez in Hairspray? Or, what if something completely off the wall happened – the Phantom in The Phantom of the Opera turned out to be an alien, or Fagin and the Artful Dodger in Oliver! ran away and moved to Canada? In this exercise, students will have the opportunity to rewrite the ending of a musical in any way they wish. Not only will they write a brand-new ending, but they’ll also compose the lyrics to a new song. The following exercise can be a purely written assignment or you can have students perform their creations as well. This exercise can be done individually or in partners/small groups. Instructions:1. Select a musical with a film version that is available for your students to watch. There are many out there! Here are just a few to start: Into the Woods, Les Miserables, Mamma Mia!, Sweeney Todd, Dreamgirls, Grease, The Sound of Music, The Wizard of Oz, or any Disney musical. You can have the full class study the same musical, or assign different musicals to different students. 2. Students will write a brief synopsis of the musical in their own words – no more than five sentences. 3. Students will then rewrite the ending of the musical with a new song. The new ending can be serious, silly, satirical, scary, or whatever students wish. Here are some examples of new and different endings for The Wizard of Oz: • Dorothy decides to stay in Oz and rule over Emerald City. • Dorothy is angry with Glinda for not telling her about the power of the ruby slippers and melts her with a bucket of water too. • Dorothy never wakes up from her dream and Aunt Em and Uncle Henry mourn the loss of their niece. • Dorothy gets in the hot air balloon with the Wizard and goes on a new adventure to Omaha. • Glinda also turns out to be a wicked witch and wages another battle with Dorothy for the ruby slippers. 4. Students will write a one-sentence synopsis of their new ending, and then write a script of the new final scene. Minimum length: 2 pages. Maximum length: 5 pages. Proper script formatting is required. You can see examples of script formatting on Theatrefolk’s Free Resources page. 5. The script must include a new song. Students may use an existing song and re-write the lyrics, or compose a brand-new song if they like. The song lyrics do not count towards the scene page count, but students should note where in the scene the song goes, and what character sings the song. If students are adapting an existing song, they may select a song of any genre (pop, rock, country, musical theatre, etc.), but they should choose a song that is stylistically appropriate for the mood of the new scene and style of the musical. Students must include a new title for the song, and indicate what the adapted song was. For example: “Time To Go” (sung to the tune of “Shake It Off” by Taylor Swift). If students are composing a new tune for their song, they must include a method of notation – either writing out the sheet music or guitar tabs, or recording themselves performing the song (audio or video). 6. Students will submit their scenes and song lyrics for evaluation, along with a written reflection. Performance Option: If you wish, students can present their creations as a staged reading with scripts in hand. They can be assigned additional group members depending on the number of roles in their scripts. It is recommended that the student playwright cast themselves in the role that has the new song, so they sing it themselves, but if another student is willing to sing instead, that is acceptable. Distance Learning Adaptation: Students can complete the written portion (scene and song lyrics) electronically to the teacher via email, or by uploading to Google Drive or similar. For the performance option, students can present their own songs live via a video conferencing program such as Zoom or Google Hangouts, or film themselves singing their song and either upload it to a private class YouTube channel or submit the video to the teacher electronically. Completed scripts can be distributed electronically to the class and read aloud together (as a group play reading, rather than a performance) via video conferencing.

The exercises listed below can be adapted to distance and online learning opportunities. Students work individually (rather than with partners or in groups). Group work and discussions can be completed using video conferencing programs (such as Google Hangouts, Skype, or Zoom). Written work can be submitted electronically via email or uploading to Google Drive or similar. Performances can be done live via video conferencing programs, or filmed on a smartphone or digital camera and uploaded to a service such as YouTube or Vimeo (privacy settings can be adjusted to accommodate your school’s internet safety policies). Check out our round-ups of exercises for Vocal and Physical Performance and Monologue and Individual Performance as well. Playwriting ExercisesPlaywriting exercises are great because they can be completed anywhere a student has access to a computer or tablet. They can also dictate their writing using speech-to-text software. Playwriting assignments can be submitted electronically, and feedback can be added and sent back, or given verbally/in person using video conferencing programs. 1. A Character is Not a Whole Person 2. A Picture Tells A Thousand Words: Cross-Curricular Drama Classroom Project 3. Brainstorming in the Drama Classroom: Coming Up With More Ideas Than You Need 4. Exploring the Greek Chorus Students will write their own Greek chorus, narrating an everyday activity. Students can also perform their piece if you wish. 5. Same Character, Different Choice 6. Shakespeare’s Words: Iambic Pentameter 7. The 5 W’s and Playwriting 8. Tips for Giving Feedback to Student Playwrights Focus on Feedback Form exercise 9. Top 3 Ways to Write a Character Specific Voice 10. Using Statistics as Scene Starters Focus on Serious Statistics – A PSA Project exercise Written Drama and Analysis ExercisesLike playwriting exercises, students can complete written drama exercises anywhere they have access to a computer or tablet, and submit their work electronically. 1. Brainstorming as a Group: Add Three 2. Dealing With Difficult Characters: 3 Tips for Success Focus on Tip #3: Your character is not “you” list 3. Do You Know Your Character? 4. Ensembles Are Characters Too! Focus on Tip #1: Character profile 5. Making Assumptions About Characters 6. Nine Questions Actors Need to Ask Themselves 7. Prompting Creativity in the Drama Classroom 8. Question of the Day 9. Questioning Your Character (Without Judgment) 10. Same Lines, Different Meanings Note – partners aren’t necessary to complete these exercises 11. To Research or To Not Research? 12. What Does My Character Want? 13. What’s the Difference Between What Characters Want and Need? 14. What’s Your Character’s Signature Gesture?

What Drama Teachers Need to Know (+ A Free Classroom Exercise)Iambic pentameter is a style of poetry, which refers to a certain number of syllables in a line and the emphasis placed on the syllables. While he did not invent it, William Shakespeare frequently used iambic pentameter in his plays and sonnets. Here are some examples that you’ll probably be familiar with. Read them out loud: • If music be the food of love, play on. (Twelfth Night) • O that this too too solid flesh would melt! (Hamlet) • But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? (Romeo and Juliet) They flow nicely when read aloud, don’t they? So what makes them examples of iambic pentameter? Let’s quickly break down the term itself. In poetry, two syllables together are called a foot. So in a line of poetry, the cat would be considered one foot. If you say the words, and the is unstressed and cat is stressed (i.e. the CAT), it can be represented as *da DUM. * An unstressed/stressed foot is known as an iamb, which is where the term iambic comes from. In poetry, meter refers to the pattern of syllables in a line. Penta means five (think “pentagram,” a five-sided figure in math, or “Pentatonix,” a super-popular a cappella group with five members). Therefore, iambic pentameter refers to a line of poetry that has five feet of iambs (an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable). So, going back to one of Shakespeare’s examples above, it would sound like: but SOFT | what LIGHT | through YON | der WIN | dow BREAKS da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM | da DUM Great! Go back and read the original examples above and think about the unstressed/stressed syllables. Some more modern sentences that use iambic pentameter might be: • I ate my sister’s soup, and it was good. • I can’t make rhymes when I am fast asleep. • I wish that you and I were in Japan. • Why do we have to go on Tuesday night? • She likes to drink her tea with jam and bread. (Shoutout to Maria von Trapp!) Now it’s time for students to try creating their own pieces using iambic pentameter. The following exercise has two parts – an individual warmup and a group writing portion. *See below * for a worksheet to guide students through the process of the exercise. Part OnePart One consists of an iambic pentameter warmup. Students do this individually. • Students will find and write out four examples of iambic pentameter in Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets (be sure students cite which play or sonnet the examples are from). • Then, students will write four original lines of verse in iambic pentameter, on any topics they wish. The lines do not need to relate to each other – this is the practice portion, where they can experiment with finding the right number of syllables and making the emphasis work. Remember that an iamb is an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. Part TwoPart Two consists of a group writing exercise. • Have students get into groups of four. Each group will choose one topic that all four members will write about. • Each individual group member will write four original lines of verse in iambic pentameter on that topic. The lines do not have to rhyme. • Once each group member has created their four lines, they will work together to combine and rearrange the lines to create a monologue using all sixteen lines. Students may arrange the lines in any order that makes an interesting narrative, then adjust and edit lines as necessary. • Once the monologue is created, students will read their monologues out loud, listening for the correct emphasis of syllables and narrative flow. Then each group will present their monologue to the class. Even though the piece is a monologue, have each group member present a portion of the piece.

““… I recommend they keep a diary, at least a page a day, and faithfully, and also to get into the habit of letter writing to other writers. The advantages that come with doing this seem obvious—both are exercises which hone the communicative skills.” George Plimpton, Advice to Writers” Both of these are great habits to put into your repertoire. Think of the diary not so much as a dumping ground for emotional angst, but as a writer’s tool. Write down what you observe on a daily basis. What did you experience? What came across your world view? Can you describe something using the five senses? But using the diary in this way, you are sharpening your skills at observation and observation is my number one most often used tool for finding play ideas. I agree with Mr. Plimpton – having honed communication skills are essential to the writer. That is all we do with our work, isn’t it? Use words as a vessel for communication. I have never written a letter, not a proper one, to another playwright. Who would you write to? What would you say? Would you tell them how they inspired you? What you you remark about their work? Sounds like an exercise. Communication Exercise1. Write three letters to three different artists who have inspired you. 2. Write a proper letter, with salutation and fully constructed sentences (no text shorthand here). 3. Explain to the artist why they inspired you and what it is you love about their work. 4. Decide what you want to communicate with the letter. Don’t just make it a one line letter: “I love your work.” Why? Be descriptive. Give the letter purpose. What is going to make the artist read your letter over all the others? What is going to make them keep going after the first line? What will make them respond to your letter? Reflection: Reflect on the exercise. Are letters a useful communication tool? Why or why not? Would you send your letters, or file them away never to be seen again? Why?

We’ve all seen those reviews. The ones that rip the theatre production up one side and down the other. They criticize the scenery and the script. They suggest that the leads take up basket weaving, since acting isn’t their thing. It’s enjoyable because we’re not the one being criticized. But it can also make you feel queasy, like you ate too much fried food. It’s not that nice to read about the total destruction of others. When it comes to writing a theatrical review, that kind of lambasting isn’t necessary. Cruelty is not something we want to teach students when it comes to analyzing a piece of theatre. There is a difference between being critical and being cruel. How To Write a Play ReviewFollow these steps with your students. Step One Start by discussing the definition, purpose, and objective of a review in a professional theatre context. • What is a review? A review is a subjective but educated response to a piece of theatre. The professional reviewer should have a strong background in theatre so that their opinion is informed, objective, and credible. • What is the purpose of a review? A review gives a potential audience member context for a production. Most people want to know if they should spend their hard-earned money on a ticket. Is this show any good? If it is, what makes it good? If it’s not, what makes it falter? • What should we learn from a review? A review should describe the situation of a play without giving too much information about the plot. It should address the production elements individually and how they work together as a whole. It should express an opinion supported by thoughtful analysis. Step Two Ask students: What’s the difference between a well-written review and a poorly-written one? Highlight the following: • Is the reviewer able to discern the vision of the production and the execution of that vision? • Is the reviewer able to analyze the production in terms other than like/dislike? • Is the reviewer able to see the production’s value and/or appeal despite their subjective response? • Does the reviewer support their views with examples? If they don’t like an actress’ performance do they explain why? Do they offer evidence to support their opinions? • Does the reviewer let their personal opinion of a play colour their review? • Does the reviewer acknowledge the audience’s reaction, particularly if it differs from their own? Step Three Have students compare and contrast three reviews of the same show by different reviewers. A Broadway production would give you a wide variety. Look for different types of reviews as well (e.g., YouTube video, longstanding newspaper review, blog post). Decide if you’ll have students research and choose their own reviews (if devices are allowed or you have access to computers) or if you’ll choose the reviews and share them on a screen. Note: If you have a class with little theatre experience and want more buy-in, use a movie as your source material. Go through the reviews and have students reflect on the following in their journals or on a separate piece of paper: • Is the review positive or negative? How do you know? • Is the reviewer objective or subjective with their review? How do you know? • How did this reviewer use (or not use) their expertise to share their experience of the play? • Did they explain why they liked or didn’t like something? • Do you like when a review is overly critical? Why or why not? • What does each review tell you about the reviewer? Step Four Now it’s time to practice! Have students use a specific play review formula like this one. Click below for a Play Review Worksheet with the same categories. • Introduction: Set up the play. Who is the playwright? What company is putting on this play? What is the context of the production (school show, community theatre, touring show, Broadway)? • Execution: How is the play executed? What is the director’s vision? What is unique about the interpretation? What’s the style? How do the individual parts fit together to make a whole? • Specifics: Is there anything unique about this production? Who is the director? What else have they done? Who are the leads? Is this a premiere or a remount? • Opinion: Is the production successful in its execution? Why or why not? Is there something out of place within the individual parts (lighting, sound, set, costuming, vision, acting)? What stands out? Does the acting bring the play to life? Does the vision suit the intention of the play? • Recommendation: Is this play worth seeing? Why or why not? What about when you’re going to see a show? How do you approach a show knowing you’re going to write a review? You can have students practice with school shows, shows from other schools, recorded versions of professional plays. The more they practice, the more comfortable they will be with expressing criticism in a constructive manner. How should students prepare before, during, and after the show?

This is a great classroom exercise to not only have fun with Shakespeare but to also see how well students can re-frame which ever Shakespeare play they are studying. Take a character from one genre (a Shakespearean play) and re-frame that character by way of a second genre (e.g. Science Fiction movie) through the medium of poster design. Both genres should be clear on the poster. Follow the template of the below example for your project. • Choose a Shakespearean character. (Macbeth) • Choose a Science Fiction movie. What sci-fi movie could your Shakespearean character star in? (The Terminator) • Re-frame the title of the Science Fiction movie so that it fits your character. (The Kinginator) • Create a visual that incorporates elements from both the Shakespeare character and the sci-fi movie. (The character looks like the Terminator but wears a king’s crown.) • Create a tagline for this new movie that helps describe who the Shakespearean character is and what they do in the play. (He’s going to be King. Or else.)

One of the keys to Classroom Management is getting students to work well together. Group work is tricky if students don’t know one another. Why should I share something with this guy who doesn’t say two words in class? Exercise: Round RobinDownload a printable PDF of this Exercise including Character/Conflict sheets at the end of this post. This exercise encourages students to work together and to think quickly. Tell students that they have to have a unanimously agreed upon product at each stage of this exercise. Outline • There are two stages in this activity: Character and Conflict. • Each group will complete a task three times for each stage: 3 times for character, 3 times for conflict. • Each group will then select one character and one conflict to use as the foundation for a short monologue. Materials • Character/Conflict Sheets (download these at the end of the post) • Each stage requires a variety of prompts. These prompts will be scattered throughout the room. You’ll need enough so that groups can visit three different prompts per task. (e.g. If you have 15 students in groups of 3 you will need 5 prompts for each task.) • Character: Individual pieces of clothing. • Conflict: Objects both natural and manmade. The objects should be small enough to hold in your hand (e.g. rocks, packet of letters, toys, stuffed animals.) Instruction • Students are divided into small groups. • Start with Character. Tell students that each group is to go an area of the room where they will find a piece of clothing. • Each group studies their piece of clothing. Students will create a character who might wear this piece of clothing. Groups must unanimously choose the following details about the character: Gender, age, name, physicality, job, hobby, family, where do they live, and significant relationship (e.g. a person, an animal, a plant, dead relative, imaginary friend). • Direct students that they have five minutes to choose their character details. • Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a second area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the piece of clothing and create a character who might wear it. • Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a third area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the piece of clothing and create a character who might wear it. • Groups now have 3 character descriptions. • Groups will repeat the process to create a conflict. The Conflict prompt will be an object. • Each group moves to an area of the room where there is a conflict object. They are to study the object and answer the following questions: • What is the object? • What problem has this object caused? • What emotion is attached to the object? Why? • Direct students that they have a three minute time limit to answer their conflict questions. • Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a second area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the object and answer the conflict questions. • Once the time limit is up, groups rotate to a third area of the room and repeat the exercise: study the object and answer the conflict questions. • Groups now have three character descriptions and three conflict objects. Groups will choose one character and match him or her with one conflict. • Groups will write a monologue for the character about the conflict. The character is speaking to whoever or whatever was chosen as the character’s significant relationship. Direct students that they must use their chosen conflict. How does the character talk about the object and the problem the object has caused? How does the character try to solve the problem in the monologue? • Groups share their monologues with the class.

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 material for a scene or monologue. You can use pictures as a character development exercise. Use pictures with landscapes or with people. There are endless opportunities. All of these exercises can be downloaded below in a printable PDF. QuestionsGive students a picture and take them through a question/answer session. This will give students a method of analyzing a photo as a first step toward writing a monologue or scene. • Give the photo to the class. • On the back of the handout, students ask five questions of the photo. • The five questions should begin with the words “who, what, when, where, and why.” • Collect the sheets, and then re-distribute them. Each student should receive a handout with questions from a different student. • Each student must answer the questions on the back of their new sheet. • Emphasize that the aim of the exercise is to answer the questions with sincerity. • Collect the handouts and discuss. How did the process differ for students between asking and answering questions? Which was easier? How could they use their answers to write a scene or play? Brainstorm possibilities. Character DevelopmentGive students a photo that features a person. Have them create a character based on their interpretation of the person in the photo. Answer the following questions. • Who is in this photograph? Give them a name and an age. • What do they do? • Who is in their family? • Where do they live? • What is their favourite food? Least favourite food? • What is the emotional state of the person in the photograph? Why? • What will they do next? • What is their most important relationship? Describe it. • What secret are they keeping and why? Divide students into groups and have them share their answers. How are the answers similar and how they are different? How do the students see the character and why did they answer the way they did? As a class, have a discussion about how they perceive people from the outside. How can an exercise like this help them develop characters for plays? Location PromptsUse photos to prompt students to think specifically about different locations. Beginning writers often stick to what they know when it comes to locations, and unique photos can show them theatrical possibilities. Also, beginning writers equate theatre locations to movie locations. It is, of course, impossible to stage a scene as realistically as a movie. When students try and inevitably fail, they think it’s because they’re poor writers. If you can prompt students to take something real that they see in a photo and change it to suit the stage, they will start to create a habit of theatrical thinking. Respond to the questions and activities below using this photo. • Where is this location? • What time of year is it? • Is something usual or unusual happening? • Automatic write for two minutes in response to this photo. What are your thoughts on the location? Don’t censor yourself! Just get words on the page. • What character would be comfortable in this location? Describe them. • What character would be uncomfortable? Describe them. • Write a conversation between those two characters. • If you had to stage this location using limited props (two cubes, a bench, a music stand and a garbage pail), how would you do it? • Theatre often uses dialogue to create the world of a location, rather than realistic sets. Write a line of dialogue that would show the audience where this picture takes place. MonologueThe best way to get better at a genre of writing is to practice it. So the way to become a better playwright is to practice writing monologues and scenes. The more students practice, the more comfortable they’ll become. Instead of giving students a blanket direction to ‘write a monologue,’ use photos to provide a starting point. There’s a story, a character, at the very least a photograph on which to base the monologue. Use the photo above as a starting point for a monologue. Start by asking questions of the photo (who, what, when, where, why), create a character profile (Who is the girl? What’s her name? What’s her most important relationship?), and do some automatic writing on the location. Then use one of the following prompts to write a monologue. • The girl has just received some bad news. Write that monologue. • The girl has a secret. She tells it to the dog in a monologue. • The girl has to make a decision. Write that monologue. • The girl hates fishing. Why is she doing it? Write that monologue. • It’s the last day of summer. The girl in this photo is worried about going to a new school. Write that monologue.

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 having — the meaning behind the words. Have your students practice writing with subtext. • Start with a discussion: What is subtext? What does it mean in a theatrical context? Highlight that subtext is the underlying meaning in a conversation. • Model this concept with students by saying the same sentence in a variety of ways with different underlying meanings: • “Hi, how are you?” (I can’t believe you showed your face.) • “Hi, how are you?” (I’m so glad to see you!) • “Hi, how are you?” (I am so jealous.) • Ask students: Why is subtext important in a scene? Highlight that subtext adds emotional depth to any conversation or action. • Model this concept by having two students improv a scene between two characters (e.g., two siblings) who are doing some kind of mundane action (e.g., folding laundry). Identify an underlying emotional subtext (e.g., anger) that can’t come out in the words of the conversation. • Have students apply this concept by writing a 1–2-page scene between two characters in which they are doing a household chore and there is an underlying emotional context to their conversation. What’s the meaning behind the lines? • Put students together in groups and have them share their scenes. Is the subtext clear in the delivery of the scene and the choices given to them by the writer? Do the listeners understand the subtext? • Unpack the experience. What was it like to write a scene in this way? What was easy? What was challenging? When you wrote your own scene, what techniques did you use to hint at the underlying emotion without directly stating it? What specific choices helped communicate the hidden meaning behind the dialogue?

The start of a new year holds many promises. I will make a resolution! I will change my life! I will….do something for two weeks and then go back to my old way of doing things. Because there’s so much emotion behind resolutions – both positive and negative – they are excellent prompts: Journal Prompts• Will you make a resolution this year? Why or why not? • How do New Year’s resolutions make you feel? • What’s the last resolution you made? Did it stick? Why or why not? • Why do people make resolutions? • Why do people break them? Improv Prompts• Write the most bizarre resolutions on slips of paper (keeping it school friendly of course) and everyone has to put a slip in their pocket without reading it. The scene is a New Years Eve Party. On a signal from you, one of the participants has to bring out their slip of paper and incorporate their resolution into the conversation. • A conversation between a pro-resolution person and an anti-resolution person. Character Development Prompts• Is your main character for or against resolutions? Why? • What resolution would your main character make? Why? • Would they stick to the resolution they made? Why or why not? Writing Prompts• Write a monologue in which a very straight laced person shares an out of character resolution. • Write a scene between a character and their will power. Will power is waning as January marches on. • Write a scene between a boyfriend and girlfriend who have opposing resolutions. What will to do to the relationship? • Write a scene between someone who is trying to stay strong and something tempting – personify a piece of cake.

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 following pictures as location inspiration.

The Best Writing Exercise ever? How can there be just ONE? Surely there’s a different “best” exercise for playwrights or novelists or poets? It’s impossible to make that claim! I am making that claim. Now let’s be clear. I’m talking about an exercise. It’s not the best way to write a play or a novel or a poem. It’s not a magic idea generator, or a remarkable rewrite tool. It is an exercise that will: • Get words on the page for any writer. • Get any writer through writer’s block. • Solve character and story problems. • Provide the perfect transition from real world to writing mode. This better be one life-changing exercise… Don’t get your hopes up. It’s nothing new. It’s nothing fancy. The Best Writing Exercise Ever is Automatic Writing. Some call it Free-writing. Wait a second, you’re trying to trick me. That’s one of the oldest exercises in the book! I automatic write all the time. Good. You should. Sometimes the best exercises are the ones we use all the time. Writers don’t need bells and whistles, they need exercises that will get words on the page. Automatic writing is the best exercise around to do just that: If you’re staring at the blank page…The worst thing a writer can do is stare at the blank page. There are many reasons why we do it – we’re tired, we don’t want to write, we’re busy with real world problems, we can’t think of anything in the moment. Get words on the page instead of thinking about getting words on the page. Give yourself a topic and a time limit and write, write, write. Get the good, bad and the ugly on the page. Don’t worry about formatting, pretty words or proper sentences. Start every writing session with an Automatic Writing Prompt. If you’ve got writer’s block…It happens all the time. You’re stuck and don’t know where to turn. It’s easier to turn away rather than face the mess on the page. Write through your problems. If you don’t know what to do with a character, automatic write in their voice. If you have a story block, automatic write 10 possible solutions. Don’t worry about whether they’re the right answers, just get as many answers as possible. You’ll find it sometimes takes two or three pages of wrong to come up with something right.

Birthdays are wonderful character development material because every human being has an immediate emotional reaction to their birthday. It could be that the character hates getting older or isn’t getting older fast enough. Or that the character is alone on their birthday. Or that they have the best birthday party ever but it isn’t enough. You could write on the concept of birthdays – why do we celebrate getting older? What do cake and candles have to do with birthdays anyway? What if everyone forgot my birthday. The possibilities are endless. Here are 15 birthday prompts to kickstart the writing process! 1. Write a monologue in which a character prepares to take a potion on her birthday so she’ll never get older. 2. Write a monologue in which a character is on the eve of an important birthday. What is their emotional state and why? What does this specific birthday mean? 3. Write a scene in which two parents try to convince their son to come out of his room for his birthday party. Why has the son locked himself in his room? What do the parents do to convince the son? Who wins in the end? 4. Write the monologue of the son in the above scenario, as he sits in his room. 5. Write a scene between a teen and her parents in which the parents seem to have forgotten the teens birthday. Re-write this scene in which it’s clear the parents are only messing with the teen. 6. Write a monologue in which a girl reacts to the truly horrible present her boyfriend has just given her. Indicate what the present does, looks like, maybe even smells like without coming out and saying what the gift is. 7. Write a monologue in which a boy freaks out over getting the exact right present for his girlfriend’s birthday. 8. Write a monologue in which a twin prepares to do something drastic so they don’t have to share a birthday. 9. Write a monologue in which a child expresses how much he hates his birthday because it’s the day he gets a cheap, lame card from his absentee dad. 10. Write a scene in which three teens work on remembering their fake names and birthdays on their fake ids. 11. Write a scene in which two best friends complain about not being invited to the “birthday party of the year.” Why weren’t they invited? 12. Write a scene in which one friend is invited to the “birthday part of the year” and the other isn’t. 13. Write a scene in which a girl actually gets a pony for her birthday and she has no idea what to do with it. 14. Write a monologue in which a boy lies about his age so he can enlist. 15. Write a scene between a pregnant woman in labour and her husband. They both want the baby to be born on January First. The baby has another agenda.

“Groak : To silently watch someone while they are eating, hoping to be invited to join them.” As a lover of words, nothing tickles me more than seeing words that used to have a life and do no longer. Death and Taxes has a list of 18 obsolete words – ( Don’t click there just yet! Read down and do the exercise first.) The website supposes these words should never have gone out of style. I’m not sure I agree on that with all of them, (I think you’ll see why when you click over there) but I sure do agree that these words make for an awesome playwriting exercise. Fair warning! Some of these obsolete words have a current sexual connotation. If you’re doing this exercise with students, I would present select words to them. *Playwriting Exercise: * • Review the following words. Decide what their definition is first without seeing what they actually mean. Resistentialism, Zafty, With Squirrel. • Write a scene in which you use the words based on your own definition. • Now click over to the site and read their definitions. • Write a scene in which you use the words based on the original definition. • Write an inner monologue from the perspective of someone who is Groaking (see above).

Over on Buzz Feed they have pictures of Happy Objects. Not, you know, objects with a cheery disposition, but that have happy faces somehow in them. They can’t help it, they look really happy. You cannot help but giggle a little at these pics. I was not in a good mood when I was putting together this blog post and dagnabit if I didn’t have a smile on my face by the end. Personification is one of my all time favourite theatrical techniques – I love taking something that is not supposed to be a character and making it one. Concepts, objects, emotions, all of these elements make for character characters. And the wonderful thing about theatre audiences is that they will go with you, with whatever you present so long as they know the rules of the world. If you let them know what’s happening, they’ll follow you to the ends of the earth, and whatever kinds of characters you happen to create there. Playwriting exercises. • Head on over to Buzz Feed and their post on Happy Objects. Pick the picture that makes you smile the most and write a monologue for that character. Give them that cheery disposition and personality to match their outward grin. • Now think of an object that embodies the opposite of your happy chair, lighter, or piece of luggage and write a scene between the two of them. Think about what conflict could lie between these two opposite characters in two opposing states. What would the happy character want from the unhappy character and vice versa? Is the happy character always happy? Annoyingly happy? Or is the other character always annoyingly sad?

I’m working on a new play in a different way this month. It’s going to be from the ground up with a class. When we had the first meeting a student raised their hand and asked “What’s this play about?” and the answer was “We don’t know yet.” Ground zero, nothing written on paper, the only thing we know is the audience for the play. It’s exciting, it’s of course daunting, and it’s great for adding a new spin to my own writing process. And our first step in this process was to brainstorm on form, topic and theme. Brainstorming is an interesting technique if it’s used in a focused way. That may seem beside the point – come up with any idea! But only in this way! – but my experience has been that brainstorming is sometimes too vague of an exercise. It’s too vast. There is a place for anything goes writing, especially if you’re working on encouraging confidence in someone’s writing ability, but since I’m the one doing the writing this was not the place. For me, it was most important to hone in on what this group was thinking. What they wanted, how they wanted the play to take shape. To that end that’s why we started with form. It would be pretty arrogant of me to write a play for a group and not give them any input on what kind of play it was going to be! What form do you want this play to take? Comedy? Kitchen sink reality, or something non-traditional? What kind of characters do you want to play? It’s a great place to start because it’s an that every drama student has an opinion on – if I could be in any kind of play this is what I would want to do. I divided the students into small groups and had them discuss and decide on how they would finish the following sentence starters: • I want the audience to remember….. • I want to perform the kind of show that…. • My favourite character to perform is… Next we moved to topic. The audience for this play is going to be middle school students so the first question to answer is, “Is the play going to be about Middle School life now, or what can Middle School students expect when they get to high school?” Two different slants which would end up with two different kinds of plays. This was a choice the group had to make, so the students discussed the possibilities and we went with the majority: What can MS students expect. With that topic in mind, I moved to a combo independent writing/group discussion brainstorming. First, the independent brainstorming exercise – automatic writing. Automatic writing is my go to exercise for getting words on the page without censorship or self-criticism. That is the key component of brainstorming – words on the page. With automatic writing you get a topic and a time limit and the goal is to keep writing for the entire time. Don’t let self-criticism of what you’re writing, stop the writing. The Automatic writing prompt was: “In Grade 9 I wish I knew that….” And then to hone their automatic writing into a presentation form, students read aloud their writing (again, in small groups) and within the group chose five things (words, images, sentences) to present to the group. This was a fantastic exercise! So many ideas came to the surface. I had a full page of chart paper. Lastly I had students discuss in their groups what they thought the most important themes were for their topic and why they were important. Essentially, this is determining what the play is going to be about. What the scenes are going to focus on. I gave them four possibilities: • Issues • Relationships • School Life • Self-Image So we could have started here with our brainstorming. We could have started with what do you want the play to be about – isn’t that the most specific starting point? But the possibilities are endless. Play topics are far and wide. The play could be about anything. It is a pretty large topic if you don’t know what your form is, if you don’t know what you want your audience to remember, if you don’t know what your topic is. To ask the question first could lead to blank stares and blank pages. But by moving through this session, step by step, I feel the brainstorming contributions made at each point were thought out, interesting and really helpful for the process.

““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.

I was recently in Arizona and visited a most unique museum. It was out in the desert (I love its name – the Superstition Mountain Museum) and on the property there was a wedding chapel that had been moved there from a movie studio – Apacheland Movie Ranch. The Arizona desert was home to many a western back in the day and this wedding chapel (named the Elvis Presley Memorial Chapel, which had a huge life-sized Elvis statue where the alter should be, but that’s another story) had a number of movie posters from projects filmed at the Ranch. We’re not going to talk about the movies. Let’s say they don’t seem, at first glance, to be great works of cinematic art. (Lust for Gold anyone?) But, what did struck me were the taglines on the posters. They are pretty awesome. We just don’t describe movies the same way anymore. The first thing I thought of is that they would make vivid writing prompts. So have a look at the taglines below and use them as a jumping off point for a scene. Write whatever comes to mind when you read the tagline. It certainly doesn’t have to be western-themed. What characters do you visualize (some of the taglines mention a specific character) and what kind of conflict might they be in based on the tagline? Get writing! “• Only he knew it was “a time for dying” • On his neck he wore the brand of a killer. On his hip he wore vengeance. • Big Jim Cole had come to the rim of hell. • Flaming skies…. blasted earth… the touch of love. • Justice is not only blind, it’s deadly. • He rode in alone… a silent stranger… until the day his blazing guns did the talking.”

All of these pictures come from the Japan pavilion at Epcot in Disney World. The store at the pavilion is an experience, based on the Mitsukoshi Department Store. I adore wandering through and seeing products that are decidedly not Disney-fied. They are so lovingly weird. As a writing exercise, take each of these pictures and make them the focus of a monologue or scene. What is the product in the picture? Who is using them? What would the outcome be of using these products? A couple of the pictures have text on them – use the text as the jumping off point for your monologue. And one picture has no English at all – decide what the product is and have someone use it in a scene.