PLAYWRITING
How does a playwright provide different perspectives to create ambiguity?
REFLECT
In Doubt: A Parable, playwright John Patrick Shanley introduces a complicated and troubling scenario (the potential abuse of a student, by a priest), but creates ambiguity and mystery throughout the play. One playwriting strategy he uses is to provide multiple perspectives on the same incident:
Sister James's version: “He took Donald Muller to the rectory…(for) a talk … It’s just the way the boy acted when he came back to class. He looked frightened and… he put his head on the desk in the most peculiar way. And the one other thing…I think there was alcohol on his breath. There was alcohol on his breath."
Father Flynn’s version: “Donald Muller served as alter boy last Tuesday morning. After mass, Mr. McGinn caught him in the sacristy drinking alter wine. When I found out, I sent for him. There were tears. He begged me not to remove him from the alter boys. And I took pity on him. I told him if no one else found out, I would let him stay on."
BRAINSTORM
Create a list of other complicated situations with serious consequences you’d like to explore. (Some ideas might be cheating, bullying, relationship conflicts, an accident, etc.). Choose one of these ideas and develop a short scenario for your own scene.
CREATE
Imagine two different characters with very different perspectives on this event. Give them names, and write a short monologue for each character where they describe the same event from their own perspectives. Try to make each description so detailed and convincing that your audience will be challenged to guess which is more accurate.
PHYSICAL ACTING
How does an actor use breath and movement to convey an emotional state?
REFLECT
In John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt: A Parable, the character Father Flynn says, “Then what is it? What? What did you see that convinced you so thoroughly?” In a play, text is one way to relay information about a character’s emotional state, but audiences often receive information and make inferences based purely on visual observation. Breathing, a basic and universal action, is one way actors can show us how their characters are feeling.
OBSERVE
Pay attention to your breath. Close your eyes or find a soft focus in the room, take 30 seconds and just breathe. At the end of 30 seconds try to describe aspects of your breathing.
A: Notice how you are breathing.:
Example: "I am taking long deep breaths."
B: Notice where the breath manifests physically in the body.:
Example: "As I inhale, my ribcage expands and as I exhale it contracts."
C: Thinking about how you are breathing and from where, describe your current emotional state:
Example: “My breath is shallow, my chest is moving in response to my breath, and I feel anxious.”
CREATE
Think about how your breathing might appear if you were accused of something, or if you were trying to calm someone down, or if you had a secret. Choose one of these emotions (or pick your own) and decide how you would perform that with your breath.