Playwriting: Character

Playwriting Character Lecture

[@DextersLab3000]

I thank you for making it clear. I enjoy learning from you!!!!

[@zeebrook]

I would use a tie microphone as your voice is relatively low.

[@maxinechantel2393]

The sound is very low ...I cannot hear what you are explaining.

[@me_yessik]

So, something I've been struggling with is how to convey emotion without the character on stage flat out saying what they're feeling. It's different in movies and books obviously because you can introduce a lot more subtleties like facial expression and metaphor and inner monologue and all that stuff, but I feel like on stage all that stuff is kind of out the window. Obviously most people aren't going to be able to analyze your facial expression from the audience. They might see big, exaggerated facial expressions but, yeah.. And of course inner monologue won't work, unless you're play happens to have a narrator... metaphor /simile definitely can't work... since both are generally used to describe what a character is feeling without actual need for on -the-nose statements or dialogue… Something like *the city pissed rain* , Or Hemmingway's famous "hills like white elephants" ... Any suggestions for how to convey emotion, specifically an emotion like depression., on stage...?

[@me_yessik]

@@RTHSIanFinley Woah, that actually was really helpful, thank you. It's funny that I used the "hills like white elephants" example of my own accord without even thinking about the fact that entire story is doing exactly that--talking around the emotion rather than addressing it head on. Thank you. I might actually have to revisit that story just to give myself some ideas.

[@hayesbowman5098]

My name is Mario, I will tell you my story for one carton of milk and half eaten hotdog there once was a man named Pablo. Pablo was not a very good man, he had of habit of sending his plumbers on dangerous missions to save a princess and defeat a dragon. It is not a good life, but it is my life.

[@salehalshemali1451]

Is a plot = story ? is the theme = main idea or topic ?

[@me_yessik]

I feel like theme is different if you're a writer then if you are a literary critic. If you're a literary critic themes exist in stories whether the writer intended them or not. If you're the writer the theme is like your thesis. It's the idea or ideas you want the reader to come away with. Topic is different. A story can be about economic struggle, but that can't be a theme because you're not really saying anything with it or putting forth a perspective.. Sometimes stories say the theme flat out, sometimes not. Like a pretty straightforward example is Spider-Man's "with great power comes great responsibility" because it's a lesson peter parker has to learn throughout the story and pay a heavy price to learn it. The topic of spider-Man could be something like heroism or coming of age, neither of which carry any specific message. But that statement "with great power comes great responsibility" is like an idea we come away with in the midst of those topics. Again though if you're a literary critic there could be themes of all kinds of things hidden in that story depending on the lens you're looking through.