About the Lengths of Plays

Video Transcript

"STEVE CAVERNO: Hi. My name is Steve Caverno on behalf of Expert Village, and today I'll be talking to you about playwriting basics. Next, we'll be examining the different lengths of plays. We'll list the ideas in two categories. One-Act Plays: One-act plays are plays that are viewed in one sitting. They're usually no more than an hour, and can range anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. One-act plays are typically not as complex as a longer version of a play, a full-length play. Full-length plays are typically two acts with intermission in between. A one-act play would be, let's say a plot line where a gang of bandits finds some gold or searching for some gold. And during the play, they talk about the gold and all those experiences they have gone through searching for the gold. And then most of the bandits actually, except for one, and then that bandit reveals that he actually has the gold. So, we have that surprise at the end. A two-act play would be where maybe two of the bandits at the end of the scene revealed that they have the gold, and then one of the bandits blackmails the other bandit. And then years later, that bandit's married and they have a family, and the other bandit comes back to blackmail them. And then they murder that bandit, and then the police get involved, and blah, blah, blah, and then the play just expands from there. It's much more complex. Whereas on a one-act, you really just want to hit one point or you want to drive one thing home. And these are some of the examples of how length adds to the complexity of the play."