Play is yet another genre of literary writing besides prose, fiction, poetry, etc. Critics have referred to literature, of which play is a part, as an imitation of reality. Literature is said to reflect life. Shakespeare makes similar observations but from the reverse side of the telescope: In the play, As You Like It, he says

According to Shakespeare, life is a play and all of us stage performers.
So either way we look at it, a play carries the depiction of reality and deals with life.

The situations in the play may be authentic or imaginary or both, authentic and imaginary. Situations contribute towards developing characters, major and minor, by involving them in a series of events, big and small. These characters move ahead experiencing combinations of the nine emotions known to human beings. A play typically introduces a plot and sub-plots, builds up a conflict and later resolves it.

The practice of writing and enacting plays occupies a significant place in the school curriculum. Such activities taken up as projects train students in language skills while stimulating their imagination and creativity. Taken in full earnestness, these projects work towards developing the personality of students as they involve a lot of planning and organizing. Leadership qualities get honed as much as qualities needed to work in teams.

• to involve students by posing situations and problems which demand solution
• to place responsibility on students to prepare the play
• to make the slower, weaker students participate as actively as the better students
• to link plays to their reading
• to link plays to their experiences

It is a good idea to encourage students to write plays on imaginary situations or even those drawn on their lives. But it is also quite in order to let them take up works of fiction and rewrite them in the form of drama, as long as they acknowledge the source.
Guidelines to be observed:

• use conversational English
• avoid monologues
• have around 7 scenes in a one-act play
• keep the plot simple
• take up familiar cultural settings

Note on Lessons

The present project on writing one-act plays is designed in the following manner:

Part: 1
Week 1-4 (June 1-30, 2002)
At the end of this period each student should have written one play in each of the sections. Four tasks each week for each of the three sections i.e., Primary, Middle and Secondary/Sr Secondary Sections. All the tasks will have examples. The students will also have the choice to experiment further with the examples meaning they can rewrite/develop further the plays written as examples. We do not make any claims to presenting model writing of plays since that is not desirable nor is it possible due to space limitation.

There are 16 tasks designed to train you in writing a one-act play. This week looks at the first four tasks. The examples given for the tasks are not to be taken as model pieces. They have scope for further development, polishing, etc. In addition to the one act play they write, students may build upon the examples further if they wish to.

Part: 2
Week 1-4 (July 1-31, 2002)
Each student should be able to write one play in each of the 3 sections. 4 tasks each week for each of the three sections i.e., Primary, Middle and Secondary/ Sr Secondary Sections. There will be more scope for guided writing in this part of the project. Other instructions will be given with the tasks.

§ If you are looking for Writing Tasks of the earlier weeks posted here, click on Archives