How to make a THEATRICAL SCRIPT

A theatrical script is a text that details all the elements and actions that make up a play. It is aimed at those who participate in the work and contains all the dialogues and technical or artistic details necessary to carry it out.

The theatrical script specifies all the details to consider for the staging, as well as the guidelines to be followed by the participants: actors, directors, technicians, etc. This text contains all the elements that will give life to the work, such as the dialogues, the actions, the type of wardrobe, the lighting or the set, so that we could say that the script is in charge of launching the common thread of the story you want to tell.

Whether you want to do a short theatrical script (perfect for beginners) or if you want to produce a longer play, it is essential that the script is well detailed.

Do you wonder what is the structure of a theatrical script? As we have seen, the script specifies all the details of the work to be presented. In this case, it should be taken into account that the structure of a theatrical script must have a beginning, a middle and an end. However, we have already seen that there are many elements of a theatrical script that we must include.

Thus, we will not only talk about the structure but about all the parts of a theatrical script, Which are the following:

• Title of the work: the title of any work is essential for the public to identify it.
• Characters: in turn, these are divided into major and minor. You must define very well the personality and characteristics of each character and, if possible, how he is dressed and even what internal conflicts he has (in case it is relevant to the story).
• Annotations: This is one of the most important elements in a theatrical script, since it will give guidelines on the changes of sets and the movement, arrangement and gestures of the actors on stage. Here you can write down all the details that the playwright considers necessary for the correct performance and interpretation of the play.
• Acts: the acts refer to each of the parts of the work and are listed. The passage from one act to another implies a change in the scenery.
• Scene: it is within the same act and refers to the characters that appear on the stage, so that a change of scene would mean a change of characters or disposition of the characters.
• Picture: it is an element integrated into a scene that represents situations or brief dialogues that can be independent of the common thread of the story. In the paintings, the decoration may or may not change.
• Dialogues: are the texts that the actors interpret.
• Monologues: this happens when there is a single character on stage who interprets a text for himself, for other characters who are not on stage or for the audience.

You might find this article on How to Write Funny Dialogue helpful.

We have already talked about the main elements of a theatrical scriptHowever, depending on the type of work you are working on, it must meet specific characteristics or others. These are the main characteristics of a theatrical script that you should know:

• Coherent structure: a good theatrical script must be provided with a certain structure that allows the coherent realization of the work. A linear structure in a theatrical work is composed of the introduction, the middle and the end, so that the common thread of the play has to be coherent from the beginning to the end. While it is true that this structure is the standard when writing theater scripts – and the most recommended for beginners – there are playwrights who go beyond these limits and settle in more experimental structures.
• Specific scenographic details: this implies a detailed description by the author of each of the elements that must appear in the staging during the course of the work.
• Clear dialogues: are all those conversations that make up a play. These must be specified with a hyphen, the name of the character and a colon preceding the text to be interpreted. Dialogues are one of the most important elements of any work and you have to work them very well.
• Character action: A theatrical script needs to specify the actions of the characters in the story to make sense of the play and help the actors to better interpret their dialogue.

Before you start writing your own play, you can always take a look at a good theater script example for inspiration. It does not have to be the script of a popular and great work, but analyzing a theater script example short you will be able to get a clear idea of ​​the order that all these elements should follow.

Once each of the parts and elements of a theater script is clear, you can start working on your own script. For this, we propose you some initial questions that any playwright should do before starting to write his play:

• What story do I want to tell?: you have to think carefully about what you want to tell, transmit, make visible, or expose in the work. It is advisable to focus on a specific idea or a situation that serves as a starting point, as this will give better results than a large abstract idea.
• How am I going to tell the story?: once you have clear the main plot of the work, you will have to detail the structure of your narrative thread: is it going to be something linear and coherent? Will it have an introduction, conflict and solution, or will it be an open ending?
• How many characters are there and what are they like?: it is essential that you define what the personality of each of them will be like. This implies hard creative work and possibly represents the core of the work, so it takes a lot of time to define all the details that affect our characters. Remember that you must be credible and they have to differentiate themselves well from each other.
• What type of decoration will my work have?: the next step will be to identify in what time, place and / or circumstances the play will be set, as this way you will be able to get an idea of ​​the ornaments and scenery that must be inserted in each staging.
• How do I finish?: you have to be clear about how to resolve the conflict of the story and, if it is an open ending, think about the possible interpretations that the audience can give. You should always try to orient the work towards what you want to convey.

Steps to make a theatrical script

Do you already know what you want to tell and how you are going to do it? If so, follow the steps that we provide from UNHOWTO to develop a good theatrical script.

1. Make a draft or an outline of the work that contains the acts and scenes, always detailing what happens in each part.
2. Do not be in a hurry to finish your theatrical script, in fact, we recommend that you make as many drafts as necessary until you feel convinced with your work.
3. Once you have the acts and scenes more or less well defined, start writing the dialogues. Remember that you have to do it consistently, so don’t spend too much time embellishing these dialogues, there will be time towards the end for that.
4. Try to make the dialogue fit well with the definition of each character’s personality.
5. Write down the dimensions that you think are necessary. A trick to do this is to imagine that you see the work from outside to be able to identify all the details of the actions, the lighting, the stage, etc. that are relevant so that the story makes the desired sense.
6. Once you have written the acts, the scenes, the dialogues and the annotations, it will be time to polish all the details of the work so that it is as complete as possible. In the case of dialogues, for example, you will have to rewrite them to give them a natural touch (you can even record yourself saying them). It is possible that throughout this step new annotations will appear that you will have to include referring, above all, to gestures and non-textual reactions of the characters.
7. When you finish these steps, you can reread and continue polishing the work until you get the desired results and close the script with a good ending.
8. We recommend that the last step is to choose …