Teachers of beginning playwriting are wise to lay out certain rules that can boost the success of student writers. Buzz McLaughlin’s The Playwright’s Process—a textbook I use—puts forward “A Few Initial Guidelines” (17-19). Many of these guidelines are useful; however, I believe McLaughlin goes too far when he asserts that beginning playwrights should write in a realistic style (18).
While realistic drama has its place in the classroom, I question the notion that realism must come first. Such a premise denies the primary reason dramatists write: not to recreate life—which can be watched as it unfolds in any laundromat or public place—but rather to tell a story aloud.
Playwriting is best understood as a logical step in oral storytelling: first, describe an incident; then, add dialogue to that description; next, recite the dialogue with appropriate attitude (acting); and, finally—when the story overwhelms the capacity of the solo teller—ask friends to join in and take on roles (drama). Nothing in this process suggests the necessity of any imitation of life with its nitty-gritty details. Furthermore, theatre history tells us that drama did not begin with what we would call realism; so why begin with it in the classroom? Certainly, many of drama’s most lasting successes—the ancient Greeks and Shakespeare, for instance—are not realistic and are nothing like words overheard in a café. Continue reading “Beyond Realism”