How to Construct Character Page for Plays

Video Transcript

"STEVE CAVERNO: Steve Caverno, on behalf of Expert Village, here today to talk to you about formatting and play production. Now, we're going to talk about the character page. This is a good thing to include in your script, because this will give people an immediate knowledge of what kind of characters are featured in your script. They'll know the cast size. They'll know who you're looking for. So, if you have a senior group that's one to put on a play, and you have bunch of college characters in there, and they want to do a realistic play, it's probably not going to be the best thing for them to do. And so, this way, you'll know what kind of characters you're looking for. If you'll send this out in a producing theater company, that way they'll be able to look through your play, and know if this is something you are looking for. You'll start out with characters or casts of characters. You can write either one. And then, you're going to list your characters on the side, all the way down. If you have ten characters, then you'll list them all the way down. List your characters in capital letters. In this here, we have Dan, and then you'll going to write just a brief description of the character, a hot headed cop from Reno. So, basically, who the character is, their occupation, where they're from, it can be good ways to introduce a character. Likes to yell, maybe just some little aspects of their character--they like to yell. Maybe that's something they do a lot. Mid-forties, so then you get an age range. So, this is important things to know because how are you going to cast the character. Now, in certain times, if you can leave the age range open that can add a more casting, more available casting opportunity. And now, that might be something to notate. Misty. Now, we have Misty, a dame to die for. So, that's just kinda, also brings about a genre appeal, entertains the lounge on the outskirts of town, so that way we get to know where she works, what she does. And then, twenty-five, just basically just give her age there. So that way we know what kind of casting we're looking for when we cast Misty's part. And then we have Drake, the bartender at the lounge. So, we have a bartender at the lounge where Misty works. So, we'll relate these two characters. That's another thing you can do in the character section. And then we say untrustworthy, scumbag. You don't have to be that opinionated about your characters, but you can say untrustworthy, maybe. And then, mid thirties', so you can give an age range for that character. In that way, you have these laid out. They'll have an idea of what they're looking for when they go to cast this play. And that's something they might be interested in."