From Page to Stage

every designer's playscript analysis process is to examine each character to determine what function, or functions, the playwright expects that character to fulfill. Seeing the characters in terms of the jobs they perform allows designers to successfully create and manipulate visual focus on the stage.

a. Principal characters:
Who is the protagonist?
	Note primary action(s)

Every play is activated by a character who wants something insistently enough to keep the action going until the story is told. We call this character the protagonist, "the chief personage in a drama." If you have difficulty identifying the protagonist in a play, turn your search around and look for the character without whose presence the play could not move forward. Protagonists are generally quite outspoken in proclaiming what they want. Spend a few moments thinking about how familiar protagonists such as Mother Courage, Hamlet, Hedda Gabbler, Willie Loman, Blanche duBois, or Tartuffe function within their respective structures. What similarities do you find between 	the ways they move toward achieving their goals?

Getting Out, by Marsha Norman:
Arlene is the protagonist of Getting Out. Her fifth line in the play is: "Look, I'm gonna do all right. I done all right before Pine Ridge, an I done all right at Pine Ridge. An I'm gonna do all right here."
In spite of all she faces in the course of the play's action, Arlene holds fast to her determination to do all right. She rejects Carl's proposal to go back to work for him as a prostitute. She refuses to let Bennie take care of her. She goes out to the store and buys groceries. She allows Ruby to become a friend. And, most important of all, she begins to come to terms with her past.

Who is the antagonist?
Note primary action(s)

Arlie, Arlene's gitlie name self. provides the insistent parade of obstacles Arlene faces as she struggles to do all right. Arlie, the antagonist, is all the past events that are vividly alive in the present and threaten to overpower Arlene's desire to change her life. Arlie's primary action is to constantly remind Arlene of every painful, angry, degrading, vicious thing she ever did. Because I'm still here, Arlie seems to say, you'll never change; you'll never do all right.

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Playscript Analysis
What are the functions of the other characters?
Mother is te negative portrait of a maternal figure.

MOTHER:	I woulda wrote you but I didn’t have nuthin to say. An no money to send, so what’s the use?
ARLENE:	I made out.

Carl was all she had in the past: lover, father to her child, pimp, leech. As the only love she has ever known, he is her greatest danger in the present.

ARLENE:	Can't trust anybody.

RUBY:	Well, you don't want to trust him, that's for sure.

ARLENE:	We spent a lot of time together, me an Carl.

RUBY:	 He live here?

ARLENE:	No, he jus broke outta Bricktown near where I was. I got word there sayin he'd meet me. I didn't believe it then, but he don't lie, Carl don't.

RUBY:	You thinkin of goin with him?

ARLENE:	They'll catch him. I told him but he don't listen.

RUBY:	Funny ain't it, the number a' men come without ears.

Bennie is a father figure; he is old enough to be her father. He was a prison guard and the only one who could, or would, interact with Arlie. He has left his guard's job (unbeknownst to her) in order to drive her from Alabama to Louisville. He expects to remain with her. He loves her in his fashion: as something to care for, an intriguing challenge in an otherwise dull life, youth, and sex. Who knows how formidable an obstacle he might have presented to the new Arlene if he had not tried to force sex on her. He does. He loses.

BENNIE: 	Well, look. Least you can take my number at the motel and give me a ring if you need something. Here, I wrote it down for you. . . . 

ARLENE: 	O.K. then. I got your number. 

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From Page to Stage

Ruby is the upstairs neighbor. She is the role model, an ex-con who is out of jail and working, but whose life is not particularly appealing. Ruby is reality.

ARLENE: 	. . . I can't git no work that will pay good cause I can't do nuthin. It'll be years fore I have a nice rug for this place. I'll never even have some 01 Ford to drive aroW1d, I'll never take Joey to no fair . . . I'll have to wear this fuckin dress for the rest of my life. What kind of life is that?

RUBY: It's outside.

b. Secondary characters:
	What is the function of each?

School Principal: Arlie is too much trouble for an overworked administrator. Besides, who wants to get involved with the possibility of incest?

SCHOOL PRINCIPAL:  . . . I have four hundred other children to take care of here and what have I been doing? Breaking up your fights, talking to your truant officer and washing your writing off the bathroom wall. Well, I've had enough. . .

Warden: Represents the rational world. Attempts to deal with Arlie in ways that make her more irrational.

WARDEN: 	Arlie, you see the other girls on the dorm walking around, free to do whatever they want? If we felt the way you seem to think we do, everyone would be in lockup. When you get out of segregation, you can go to the records office and have your time explained to you.

ARLIE: 	It won't make no sense.

Doctor: Wants to help. Does not have the knowledge or understanding to help. Tries. Never makes a dent.

DOCTOR: 	What's this about Cindy?

ARUE: 	She told Mr. Dawson some lies about me.

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Playscript Analysis

DOCTOR:	I bet

ARLIE:	She said I fuck my Daddy for money.

DOCTOR: And what did you do when she said that?

ARLIE: 	What do you think I did? I beat the shit out of her.

DOCTOR: 	And that's a good way to work out your problem? 

ARLIE: 	She ain't done it since.

DOCTOR: 	She's been in traction since.

c. Crowds and functionaries: 	
      Note functions

The guards, with the exception of Bennie, torment Arlie and feed her anger. When she explodes, they punish and confine her.

VI. WHAT KINDS OF DIALOGUE DO THE CHARACTERS SPEAK?

a. Naturalistic?
b. Realistic? 
c. Literary?
d. Poetry? 
e. Other?

Rarely, if ever, are conversations in real life made up of words chosen only to facilitate specific actions and communicate predetermined intentions. Dramatic dialogue, on the other hand, is always a carefully crafted imitation of actual speech, even when the exchanges seem to be completely natural.
When the playwright employs regional accents, the halting speech of inarticulate characters, or the broken speech of a character under great emotional duress, we call it naturalistic dialogue, The dialogue in Getting Out is naturalistic,

BENNIE: 	Wish I had a kid. Life ain't, well, complete, without no kids to play ball with an take fishin. Dorrie, though, she had them backaches an that neuralgia, day I married her to the day she died. Good woman

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though. No drinkin, no card playin, real sweet voice. . . what was that song she used to sing? . . . Oh, yeah.

Realistic dialogue might be described as an extremely fluent version of actual speech. The characters speak in complete sentences and prose paragraphs. They express themselves clearly and may use words and grammatical constructions we seldom encounter in conversation. The plays of Ibsen, Chekhov, and Shaw are all written in realistic dialogue, as is Long Day's Journey into Night.

MARY: 	Good heavens, how down in the mouth you look, Jamie. What's the matter now?

JAMIE:	Nothing.

MARY:	Oh, I'd forgotten you've been working on the front hedge. That accounts for your sinking into the dumps, doesn't it?

JAMIE:	If you want to think so, Mama.

MARY:	Well, that's the effect it always has, isn't it? What a big baby you are! Isn't he, Edmund?

EDMUND:	He's certainly a fool to care what anyone thinks.

Literary dialogue is an even more heightened version of speech that contains few, if any, colloquialisms or slang phrases. literary dialogue is prose employing colorful language devices, sometimes including metaphor and simile. Speeches are neat, concise, and well balanced. English Restoration comedy abounds with literary dialogue, such as this exchange from Richard Brinsley Sheridan's School for Scandal.

SIR BENJAMIN: 	To say truth, ma'am, 'tis very vulgar to print; and, as my little productions are mostly satires and lampoons on particular people, I find they circulate more by giving copies in confidence to the friends of the parties-however, I have some love elegies, which, when favored with this lady's smiles, I mean to give to the public.

CRABTREE: 	'Fore heav'n, ma'am, they'll immortalize you!-you'll be handed down to posterity like Petrarch's Laura, or Waller's Sacharissa.

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Playscript Analysis

SIR BENJAMIN: 	Yes, Madam, I think you will like them, when you shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall murmur through a meadow of margin. 'Fore gad, they will be the most elegant things of their kind!

The language of the theatre has been poetry for a much longer period of time than it has been prose, In the late sixteenth century, playwrights, including Shakespeare, began to combine prose and poetry in dialogue, usually assigning poetry to the upper classes and prose to characters of less genteel birth, An interesting turnabout of this custom occurs in Henry V (act 2, scene 1), when Pistol descends into verse to lambast Nym.

PISTOL: 	"Salus," egregious dog? 0 viper vile! 
The "salus" in thy most marvelous face! 
The "salus" in thy teeth, and in thy throat, 
And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy! 
And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth! 
I do retort the "salus" in thy bowels;  
For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, 
And flashing fire will follow.

VII. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE PLAY?

a. Briefly describe the principal event in the play,

For example, in Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare describes two families, the Montagues and the Capulets, who are at war with each other, Romeo, a Montague, and Juliet, a Capulet, fall in love and marry in secret. Unfortunately, Juliet's father has promised her to someone else, When she refuses to marry her father's choice, he tells her to get married, or leave his house. Juliet asks Friar Laurence for advice and he gives her a poison that makes her seem dead for "two and forty hours," Romeo fails to get the message that Juliet's seeming death is only a temporary sleep, so when he finds Juliet, he believes she is actually dead. Romeo kills himself. Juliet wakes, sees Romeo dead and kills herself. After the lovers are dead, the Montague family and the Capulet family declare peace.

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From Page to Stage

b. Construct an action chart for the play.

An action chart has both practical and aesthetic functions. Practically, it shows the designers which characters will be on the stage in anyone scene, or section, of the play. The chart is an invaluable aid in planning costume and

Romeo & Juliet	1.1	I.'	1-3	14	1-5	II-I	11-2	11-3	114	11-5	11-6	11I-1	
Chorus	X												
Escalus-Prince	X											X	
Paris		x											
Montague	X											X	
Capulet	X	X			X							X	
Romeo	X	X		X	X	X	X	X	X		X	x	
Mercutio				x	X	X			X			X	
Benvolio	x	x		x	x	x			x			x	
Tybalt	x				x							x	
Friar Laurence								x			X		
Friar John													
Halthasar	x												
Abrnm	X												
Sampson	X												
Gregory	X												
Peter									X	X			
Apothecary													
Officer	X												
Lady Montague	X											x	
LadyCapulet	x		X		X							x	
juliet			x		X		x			X	x		
Nurse			X		X				X	X			
CitiLens	X											X	
Guests					X								
Servants		X	X		X								
Othen;	x			x	x							X	
				A	C	T		I					

Figure 3-5. Action Chart for Romeo and Juliet constructed from the playscript for the design process. The chart will be adjusted to reflect costing and doubling once the production has gone into rehearsals.

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Playscript AnaJysis

RomeQ & Juliet	III-2	11I.3	11I-4	111-5	IV-I	IV-2	IV.]	IV4	IV-S	V-I	V-2	V-3	
Chorus													
Escalus Prince												,	
Paris			,		,				,			,	
Montague												,	
Capulel			,	,		,		,	,			,	
Romeo		,		,						,		,	
Mcrcutio													
Benvolio													
Tyba!t													
FriarLaurencc					,				,		,	,	
Friar Jobn											,		
l3allhasar										,		,	
A'=n													
Sampson													
Gregor)'													
Peter								,					
ApoIhcGITY									,				
Officer													
Lady Monwgue													
LadyCapulet			,	,		,	,	,	,			,	
Juliet	,			,	,	,	,					,	
Nurse	,	,		,		,	,	,	,				
Citizens													
Guests													
Servants						,		,					
Others									,			,	
				A	C	T		I	I				

Figure 3-5. Continued

scene changes, creating areas and playing spaces, and arranging furniture. You can also use the action chart to gauge one aspect of the play's rhythm: the flow of characters on and off the stage.

VIII, WHAT IS THE PLAY'S THEME?

The core action of Romeo and Juliet centers upon the love of the two central characters, their desire to be together, and the hatred and divisions in their world that keep them apart. It seems to be very much a play about divisions that exist in most any society and the essential urge of human hearts-which is larger than any of these divisions-to draw together in love and joy. I

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From Page to Stage

think, then, that it is important in the story-telling for the love of Romeo and Juliet to be played out against a backdrop of hatred and combat that exists in their world. The first lines of the Prologue introduce this theme, the first scene illustrates it, and the fundamental action of the play is driven by it. (From director's notes, written by Tony Schmitt, in preparation for a production at the Utah Shakespearean Festival) 

When you analyze playscripts using all or some of the methods described in this chapter, you will come away knowing a great deal about the play on the page. You will have probed it, poked it, and looked at it from a variety of angles. Now you are ready to expand your perceptions of the script and to grapple with meaning, intention, and creating strong visual statements.

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