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Plays
John Dryden, who lived from 1631 to 1700 and was a famed English poet, literary critic, and playwright, wrote in his adaption of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, "But Shakespeare's magic could not copied be; Within that circle none durst walk but he.""
Portrait of William Shakespeare from H.F. Helmolt's History of the World published in 1901. Image is in the public domain.
Shakespeare is a playwright familiar to most high school students. His 37 plays and 154 sonnets have stood the test of time. It is the hope of all playwrights that their works will last centuries, but very few have experienced that great accomplishment! Whether the creation of a legendary work or a piece that barely makes it out of the computer, all playwrights must understand some basic elements.
Acts and Scenes
Plays are divided into acts, or large division of a play into a series of actions. These actions take place in scenes, which are individual actions that take place in a specific and single setting and moment in time.
Forms
Plays can take many forms:
One-act plays are plays where the entire action of the play takes place in only one act and lasts approximately 30 minutes. They typically feature one main action or problem.
A full length play is made up of at least 2 acts that revolve around one, common story. These plays are at least 90 minutes in length.
A musical is a play that can run any length, but where singing and dancing are an important part of the play.
There are other structures used by playwrights as well. For example, Shakespeare used a five-act structure (meaning a play with 5 acts), but the ones listed previously are the most common.
The front page of Hamlet printed in 1623 in Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies: published according to the true originall copiesΒΈ which is known as the First Folio. Image in the public domain. See larger version at the Schoenberg Center for Electronic Text and Images.
Conflict
Conflict, or the struggle between opposing forces, is a necessary part of all plays no matter the structure.
Conflict can be internal. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the protagonist, or main character, is filled with inner turmoil. Hamlet utters the famous words, "To be or not to be," which demonstrates the chaos he is feeling as the play begins.
Conflict may also be external. When conflict is external, it is often seen as struggle between the protagonist and the antagonist, or the person who is opposed to or competes with the protagonist.
In the end, a play must be long enough to resolve this conflict. In theatre, this is referred to as a denouement, or final resolution of a plot. Denouement is pronounced "DAY-noo-MAH" or you hear the pronunciation at the Oxford Learner's Dictionaries.
In a tragedy, the resolution will often come in the form of a catharsis, or emotional cleansing by the protagonist and audience. Catharsis is pronounced "kuh-THAHR-sis" or hear the pronunciation at the Cambridge Dictionary .
Spoiler Alert: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, when Hamlet gets in a sword fight with Laertes, the audience experiences a catharsis because they sympathize with Hamlet because they feel like he hasn't been treated fairly.
