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Handout I
1. Balance: implies a special situation, i.e. a set of relationships, that can exist at the beginning of a play. the opening situation should contain the possibilities for all the major lines of action in the remainder of the play. Balance implies stress. A balanced situation should reveal the strained equilibrium between two contrasting or opposing forces. It should contain implications of potential upset, disharmony, or conflict. 2. Disturbance: an initiation event that upsets the balanced situation and starts the action. 3. Protagonist: or central character, a volitional character who causes incidents to occur. Usually most affected when the disturbance causes imbalance, even when he himself acts as the upsetting factor. And it is usually the protagonist who sets about to restore order in the situation. 4. Plan: there is usually a plan to reestablish balance. May be conscious, unconscious, careful thought-out, or eclectic. Usually involves a "goal" or "stake". (Stake, when used, usually involves a specific object--a person, place, or thing--desired but the protagonist and ordinarily wanted also by his opposition.) Most often the plan finds its way into one or more speeches by the protagonists soon after the disturbance occurs. 5. Obstacles: any factor in a story that opposes or impedes the "progress of the protagonist" as he attempts to restore balance by carrying out his plan. Tension arises when confronting an obstacle. Obstacles will: produce a threat, cause conflict, and lead to minor of major climaxes. Four types are: physical obstructions, antagonist, within the personality of the protagonist, mystic forces. 6. Complications: can enter a story at any time. Any factor entering the world of the play and causing a changing the course of action. Initial disturbance is one special kind of complication. 7. Sub-Story: may or may be evident. Usually includes all or most or the elements of the main story but do not require so much detail. Should involve some of the same characters, and its climax should come before or during the major climax in the main story. The results of the various segments of the sub-story should reflect, contrast with, or affect the main story. 8. Crisis: a turn in the action. It is a period of time during which two forces are in active conflict and throughout which the outcome is uncertain. In relation to the preceding elements, a crisis occurs whenever the protagonist confronts an obstacle. Because the out come of the crisis remains undetermined until the climax, crisis naturally arouses suspense. It also necessitates decisions. Always produces dramatic action. It forces change. Usually functions as the chief periods of concentrated activity and violent change. 9. Climax: Always follows a crisis. A high point of interest for the characters. The moment when conflict is settled. A climax cannot happen without crisis, some specific rising action, building to it. Every crisis results in climax. 10. Resolution: outcome of a series of events, the final unraveling and settlement of the complications and conflicts.
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