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One Act Play Samples

The scene introduces a playwright meeting with a theater director. The director explains the proper format for writing dialogue, including using all capital letters for character names and not using quotation marks. The playwright asks about including conflict between characters, action without dialogue, and writing dialogue as their friends would speak. The director encourages the playwright to make the characters sound intelligent and to set the story in any time or place they choose.

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D Garcia
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3K views

One Act Play Samples

The scene introduces a playwright meeting with a theater director. The director explains the proper format for writing dialogue, including using all capital letters for character names and not using quotation marks. The playwright asks about including conflict between characters, action without dialogue, and writing dialogue as their friends would speak. The director encourages the playwright to make the characters sound intelligent and to set the story in any time or place they choose.

Uploaded by

D Garcia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ACT ONE

Scene 1

A stage in a small edgy big city theater. There are two chairs CS [center stage]. The THEATER DIRECTOR, a
young, edgy, big city guy is sitting in one of them. The PLAYWRIGHT enters. Like all playwrights, this character
is so charismatic some of the spotlights implode trying so hard to compete with intense light as PLAYWRIGHT
walks toward other chair.

THEATER DIRECTOR

Do you know how to write dialogue in format?

PLAYWRIGHT

Haven’t a clue.

THEATER DIRECTOR

You center the name of the character talking and put the name in caps…That’s short for capital letters.

PLAYWRIGHT

Is that right.

THEATER DIRECTOR

Then you write the dialogue without quotation marks. Then you space and do the same thing with the
character talking back.

PLAYWRIGHT

And being confrontational? Talking back and giving the first character a hard time? I mean if I were to start
arguing with you? If I were to get loud? (Shouts) If I were to be a very

PLAYWRIGHT

Misunderstood kind of character who won’t…BEHAVE!

THEATER DIRECTOR

That would make for conflict and interest and good theater.

PLAYWRIGHT

So if I just have people saying nothing much about anything…? If they just talk about what interests me and
nothing much happens, it’s not so good?

THEATER DIRECTOR

(Snoring. Wakes up)


…huh? Right! Yes. You’ll put everyone to sleep if your characters have no conflict.

PLAYWRIGHT

What if I want to write some action that happens without any dialogue going on?

Then you describe it over here as succinctly as possible. You also have to put any characters you refer to in
caps. In other words, if the PLAYWRIGHT is going to walk DS or US [downstage – toward the audience – or
upstage – toward the back] or SL or SR [stage left which is the actor’s left or stage right, the actor’s right] you
describe it over here. It should be significant. Don’t write a novel here. And don’t direct the play’s dialogue.
The directors like to do that and can get kind of huffy if you do their job for them. And don’t have a character
doing what that character wouldn’t be caught dead doing. The actors like to become real people and if you
make their characters into jerks they can get pretty steamed.

PLAYWRIGHT

(Leaning toward DIRECTOR)

What if, like, my friends..? They all like talk like this? Can I, like, write dialogue like…you know…like they really
talk?

(Beat) [This means you want the actors to wait a second as though they are thinking or need a little time to
react. If you want them to wait a longer time, use (Pause).]

DIRECTOR

Please do. Although with only a few lines of dialogue, you could make your friends sound intelligent. You could
also place them in the last century or a thousand years in the future and you can also set them down in any
kind of place you’d like.

PLAYWRIGHT

Like a cave? Or a racetrack? Or a funeral? Or the middle of the ocean?

DIRECTOR

Assuming they can swim.

(Pause.)

PLAYWRIGHT

I can do anything

DIRECTOR

Exactly. Just put it in the right format and we’ll believe every word.

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