A recently discovered item from David Shepherd's archives, written in 1982.
A “scenario” is a sequence of events, such as “the scenario
for the outbreak of war was different in 1914 from 1939.”
When we write a scenario, we’re creating a sequence
of events for a group of players to play. To make real.
Reality in the scenario for World War I includes the
assassination of an Arch Duke, Germany’s
bid for colonies, etc. Conflicts in real Wheres.
Reality in a scenario we write must be different. Why? Because on our stage there is no real Where.
Only an imagined one.
So for us writing a scenario becomes making Wheres. Because we can’t show what happens until we
provide the context in which it’s happening.
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| Compass scenario play "Enterprise" (1955) |
For instance, a husband and wife arguing becomes a totally
different happening when set against different Wheres. If they’re arguing in a
baby’s bedroom, it’s happening differently than it would in the bedroom of
children who’ve left for college. If the argument takes place in a
concentration camp, it’s not the same as an argument on Miami Beach.
How does the writer of scenarios define the Where?
By describing it’s color or shape? No, because we have no set – except what the
player can create through activities, physical response or emotional response.
Notice: words don’t count for much in creating a
Where. We describe a Where better by interacting with it than by talking about
it.
We can ask the players to interact with a Where by cleaning
it, building it, using it, destroying it even, rather than describing it. In
fact, we don’t sit around in real life describing our Wheres unless we are
interior decorators.
Here are some guidelines for writing a scenario:
Activity: cooking, playing cards, dancing, laying
carpet……
Physical: it’s freezing, there’s a smell of soup
cooking, it’s dark……
Emotional: they’re afraid of each other, they love
the sun…..
Finally, tell us What Happens by the end of the
improvisation. In other words, tell us
what goes into the improvisation at the top, and what comes out at the end.
Don’t tell us what happens in the middle. Don’t give us a blow-by-blow account.
Don’t give us a dozen Exits and Entrances. Don’t write dialogue. All of that is
for the players to improvise.
To help the players understand the scenario in your head, make
sure we understand the time sequence of the improvisations. For instance, one
improv could take place “at midnight on the couple’s tenth anniversary.”
Another might take place “two martini’s later” or “twenty years before.”
Think of your scenario as pieces snipped out of time, out of
the fabric of our lives together. It
takes only 3-10 such pieces to tell a story.
Remember: Just as a poem or story, your scenario will
probably have to be rewritten several times before it expresses your deepest
and most dramatic insights.
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| Scenario sample by David Shepherd |
Michael Golding is a
writer, director and improv teacher. He
can be contacted for workshops, festivals and private consultations at
migaluch@yahoo.com. Michael
participated in the evolution of the Improv Olympics & Canadian Improv
Games. Artistic director of the Comic
Strip Improv Group in N.Y. & created the Insight Theatre Company for
Planned Parenthood, Ottawa. He is a faculty member at El Camino College
in Los Angeles,
working with at-risk teens and traditional students. Michael holds a BFA degree
in Drama from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts & an MA degree
in Educational Theatre from NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education &
Human Development.
