What is a Plot for a Play?

Series Summary

“You need three things in the theater - the play, the actors and the audience.” This quote is undeniably true. In order to make a good production, you do not have to have the expensive props, the professional actors, or the grand performance space. While this may give an extra edge to a production, the most important elements in theater is the effort that is put into it. All you really need is a dedicated cast, a creative set, and a eager audience. Theater is the cornerstone for appreciation of the arts. When a group of people bond together in the task of creating something with great enthusiasm, the true spirit of theater is manifested.

In this expert video series, learn about how to develop characters for a play. Steve Caverno shows you how to produce your own play. Get tips on playwrights, script writing, finding actors and developing characters. Get started today with these easy instructional videos from the experts at ExpertVillage.

Video Transcript

"STEVE CAVERNO: Hi, I'm Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village. And today, I'll be talking to you about developing your plot. Now, we're going to talk about what is a plot. A plot is a conflict, it's a series of events and the way we can lay out a plot is through a plot diagram. You start here at beginning of the play when the curtain opens where we come on. And then, of course, and at the end, between, off the middle and the course of action. Starting out, we'll have what we call the status quo. This is basically where we start. Whatever is going on when we first start the play, that's the status quo. Then we'll have an inciting incident. Our reference is to, perhaps, starting your car engine. So, the status quo, your car sitting in the driveway, you're getting in the car and then the inciting incident is when you crank that engine and you're back out on to the road. That's when the plot jump starts. This is what happens that jump starts you in to the rest of the action of the play. And then here at the middle in a play, in a full length play, you will have a confrontation and a hook. This is a moment where we have set up all the action and we'll bring it to the moment where we'll set up a hook, we'll bring the audience back for act two. You'll say, "Wow! You guys see what's going to happen in the next act." In the next act, which is typically sure, once people have been through an hour of your play, they gone out and got a Coke in the lobby and now they're ready to catch the rest of it. You really want to drive the action home to the climax, the highest point of action. Everything is at stake and then after the climax, you have the resolution where we tie up our loose ends and answer all the questions that are still remaining after the climax until the curtain falls, the actors come out and take their bows."