The tricky part about playwriting is the huge reliance on dialouge. In novels, short stories, and general pieces of prose the author/writer has the liberty to place dialouge within descriptions and narratives. In plays, however, nearly all that information must be relayed to the audience via dialouge without just outright telling, as if reading a prose manuscript or sounding as if the dialouge is unnatural.
In the excerpt from "Death of a Salesman," the dialouge between Willy and Howard provides a strong sense of the dynamics between the characters as well as their age, ranks, and even Willy's relationship with his sons. We understand that Willy is an older man nearing retirement who has, in the past, "crack[ed] up" and is reliant on this younger man who holds higher authority than Willy in this business. Willy's relentless and shameless attempts to bargain with Howard over his position at the company, and then to keep his position at all, reflect a dire situation of his soul. Howard's stubborness portrays a lack of symapthy. Thus this dialouge provides the audience with a strong sense of the character dynamics along with basic information about these characters' situations.
The excerpt from "Arcadia" starts with an update between Hannah and Bernard, thus providing the audience with some practical information. The manner in which this information is exchanged is tense. Their lines are short, some are just one word, and this terseness adds to the tension. The two also try to one-up each other with information and theories within their shared field of expertise- providing the audience with knowledge of their career/business/research as well as adding a sense of competing pride within the character dynamics. Thus the audience learns about their practical interests as well as their interest in one another through this excerpt.
The excerpt from "Angels in America" is a very intense scene that forces the audience to pick up on refrences to dynamics of this marriage that have existed before this scene. With mentions of snippets of previous episodes between Joe and Harper, the audience learns of their marriage dynamics. Through responses to accusations, the audience learns of Joe and Harper's feelings towards Mormons in Utah- about their infiltrations in regards to homosexuality. The audience also learns what Joe and Harper don't like about each other, Harpers suspicions and some of Harper and Joe's behavior that is not played out on stage during this scene.
These scenes not only provide information for the audience, but are active enough to further the plot. A playwright cannot rely on descriptions of a streetfight, of quiet and internal thoughts inspiring a character to act in a certain way, or on anything else to further the plot. Instead the playwright needs to show it on stage, the characters need to further the plot on their own without reliance on any sort of narrative to fill in the gaps between talking.
In the scene from "Henry IV, Part 1" Hotspur utters "for the hour is come/ To end the one of us" and then Hotspur and Prince Henry fight. Thus the dialouge alerts the audience, in addition to feelings the characters have of one another and their pride and desire to kill the other, that a fight is coming and only one of the Harry and Henry shall survive.
In the excerpt from "Closer" the dueling scenes between Larry and Anna and Larry and Alice, as Larry turns from one woman to the other, provides the audience with a potrayal of the two relationships Larry had. Thus the audience is able to compare and contrast, and further to judge Larry, on their own. The audience is also able to see trends and recurrences in Larry's behavior instead of having one of the ladies yell at him for repeating his mistakes. This dialouge feels more like commentary on relationships- acting out a message on stage more than furthering plot itself. Or at least the plot it does further seems to exist to make a specific point. This is more effective than it might be on a page, buried in or preached through prose .
In the excerpt from "Orphans," the audience learns what what Harold wants when he aksas "When are you gonna send me out on a real assignment" signfying a desire for more challenge, excitement, and a chance to prove himself. We also learn about the relationship from Treat's perspective. Thus this dialouge serves to provide information about motives for at least Harold as well as Treat's manipulation and desire for revenge. Through recounting instances not played out in this scene, we learn about their personal biases evident through the manner and voice through which they retell these small instances to each other.
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ReplyDeleteRegarding “Arcadia,” I am curious to know whether or not you liked the “terseness” of the language and characters, as you put it. I personally do not like the convoluted language Tom Stoppard so notably uses, although I do simultaneously appreciate and respect his style of writing.
ReplyDeleteI am a HUGE fan of “Angels in America” and love and agree with your statement that the dialogue “forces” audiences and readers to uncover the intricacies of Harper and Joe’s characters and the hidden problems within their marriage. I think the techniques employed in the dialogue here are subtlety and the building of suspense through repetition- these mechanisms realistically reveal a lot about the characters throughout the scene.
I also prefer plays that utilize action over descriptions of past events to further the plot, as most of these excerpts did well. I do not think, however, that action in plays necessarily needs to be thought of in the usual sense of movement of the actors on stage, etc. (aka fighting). I think there can definitely be effective emotional action, movement, or progression in a successful scene.
In your interpretation of “Closer,” I think perhaps you were confused?? Or perhaps I am? I do not have the scene on hand or else I would check, but I recall there being two separate couples with overlapping dialogue. Regardless, I agree with your statement that this commentary on humanity/ relationships/ infidelity is “more effective than it might be on a page, buried in or preached through prose.”
"This dialouge feels more like commentary on relationships- acting out a message on stage more than furthering plot itself. Or at least the plot it does further seems to exist to make a specific point."
ReplyDeleteTell me more about this Hannah. First off, is this a good thing or a bad thing? Does it feel heavy-handed? Is it an effective or ineffective way to communicate a message? For that matter, how do you feel about a play clearly trying to make commentary and a point rather than sneaking it in while you're paying attention to plot or sword fighting or whatever?
Second, how??? That's actually my overriding comment for your whole post here, but we'll get to that in a sec. For this one though, how do you know, from just these few pages of dialogue, that this is commentary on relationships rather than just plot pertaining to this specific one? How does the playwright expand this play to make it about LOVE rather than just this love?
And that, as I say, is my question throughout. You point to neat, tricky, well observed stuff. How are the writers pulling it off? You don't have to do it yourself just yet. But the more specific moments you can point to or underline where you say this writer did this and here's the cool thing that was communicated as a result, the better off you're going to be.
There is SO much subtlety that can be found in dialogues. You definitely match my approach to this exercise, which is to find out what you can by the dialogue, but the greatest aspect of it all is that it's not just what is said it's how it is said (to borrow from the big book of cliches). In English class, "close reading" is essential. Take a look at the diction, the sentence length, the word choices, the metaphors, and what one sentence or exchange provides for the whole image. You managed to do this well when you spoke of Arcadia.
ReplyDeleteThe hardest part is going to be keeping all this in mind when actually writing a full narrative as opposed to an excerpt. But it's an exciting challenge. I find very little to compete with in your post here, so I will just leave it at that.
bahhh meghan youre totally right, i realized i had completely misread closer when we went over the dialouges in class...clearly 1 am is not a good time to be skimming dialouges from plays ive never seen, eek.
ReplyDeletethanks.
Hannanananananah,
ReplyDeleteI think these dialogues were really a good assignment for you because you got a lot of really specific things from each one. I want to encourage you to not limit your knowledge intake based on assignments, and try to closely read every piece of dialogue like this. If you are able to get as much from every piece of dialogue, you will be able to write dialogue so easily.
I just read the comment Meghan left about Closer and I think you guys covered it.
Next, it looks like you have a feeling about the "how much is too much" question. When writing your dialogues, you will probably have more of an ability to look on your writing and thing about if your characters are talking or if you are. This will come in very handy as the thing that most people get turned off by is stilted writing. I am excited to read what you write.