Writing Theatre Scripts

There are many similarities in writing scripts for theatre and writing scripts for movies. Both of them are plays that tell which actors speak the various lines and what movements or facial features they should display. The main difference is in the productions is that theatre scripts are performed live and the scripts for movies may go through several takes before the actors get the words and the actions just right.

All scripts have a storyline – a beginning, middle and an end. Each page of the script is only about a minute of the time it takes to go through this material on stage, so a script for a short play could still be quite long. Along with creating a storyline and plot, you also have to be able to write dialogue.

When writing dialogue, you have to think about the characters of your script and how you want them to behave. The voice of the characters is important because along with writing the dialogue, you have to include a description of how you want each character to sound. Each character needs to have his/her own voice so that all characters do not appear to be alike.

Listen to how people speak to each other in real life situations. Their occupations, social standing and education are all reflected in their speech. This is something that you have to make sure is included in the dialogue. People usually speak in short sentences or bursts of conversations. The paragraphs are usually short instead of long paragraphs that you see in novels. If you do have one person speaking for any length of time, the block of speech should not be any longer than your index finger. If you want the characters to use local speech or accents, you should write the words in good English and then include a description of the way your want the character to speak these words.

When you do have your theatre script completed, you should try reading it aloud to see how it sounds. You can have actors read the script as you listen so thyat you can add other notes for the production.