Storytellers Copyright © 2000 Robert C. Huber
"Plays, monsieur, are like children: conceived with pleasure, carried about before they are born with great fatigue, and brought forth in pain; scarcely ever do they recompense their parents, and they cost more sorrow than they give delight."
Beaumarchais, playwright
Essay on the Serious Drama, 1767
Writers
A brief look at the etymology, or origins, of the word playwright will shed some light on the nature of this unique form of literature. The word play comes from Old English and originally meant to leap for joy, dance, and rejoice. It eventually came to have two primary meanings: a dramatic performance, and the spontaneous recreational activities of children. At first glance these may seem two quite different meanings, but upon closer examination they are seen to be related. A major aspect of child's play is to enter into imaginary worlds and to assume the characters who inhabit them. Children often pretend to be parents, pilots, policemen, or astronauts in their play. Since people observed actors doing the same thing it is not hard to see how the word play came to mean both. The word wright also comes from Old English and meant a workman who constructed things, as in wheelwright, cartwright, or boatwright. By appending it to play it makes clear that plays are not just written, but are constructed. Writing plays is not merely putting down a train of dialogue on paper, but carefully laying out and shaping an assembly of parts that must work together under the unique conditions of the stage. You cannot simply pull any book off the shelf and have actors read the words and have a play--novels are filled with narration and description which are essentially non dramatic. You may have noticed that the word has two forms: playwright refers to the writer of plays, and playwriting to the act of writing them. "To become a playwright you may want to take a class in playwriting." This usage of the word play in the context of dramatic art is not merely a unique aberration of the English language, but appears in other European languages as well. In French, German, and Spanish we see the "play" words jouer, spielen, and jugar applied similarly to theatrical matters. Today, playwrights are also known as dramatists.
If those who write plays are playwrights, then what do we call the writers of those twentieth century manifestations of dramatic art--film and television--screenwrights? And what do we call their scripts? Those who write films are screenwriters, and their products are screenplays. Those who write for television are known simply as writers and their product, while sometimes formally called a teleplay, is usually just a script. Another distinction between these modes worth noting is this. Plays (except musicals) are nearly always the work of a single author, but screenplays often go through several hands before production. A look at the credits of a film may reveal that it is based on an idea by..., or a play by..., or story by..., then one or more screenwriters. It is not uncommon for producers to ask an established screenwriter to rework the screenplay originally created by someone else. This includes writing a final draft from someone else's first draft, a complete rewrite, or simply "polishing" a script. These so-called script doctors are then given co-credit.
The difference is even more pronounced in television where programs, especially situation comedies, are essentially written by committee. A staff of about a dozen writers in a room work out the A and B stories, the major and minor plots of the episode. Next the lead writer does an outline based on this which is then brought back to "the room" for notes. The lead writer then goes away and writes the first draft which is again returned to the room for notes; comments from the staff and producers. Then the lead writer writes a second draft which goes back to the room for line-by-line revision, including the "punching-up" of certain jokes and gags. The resulting revision goes to the cast to read over the weekend. On Monday morning the cast gets together with the director and writers for a "table-read." At this point the producer gets notes from executives representing both the studio which is producing it and the network which will broadcast it. During the week the writing staff does further revisions until the episode is shot before a live studio audience on Friday. Most of the fifty or so sitcoms currently airing are written in this way. This kind of "gang writing" can only work in serialized programs where the characters and situation are well established and continuing. Stephen Engel, one of the lead writers on NBC's Just Shoot Me defends the value of the approach this way. "By plotting it out in advance, you prevent the wholesale destruction of the script. A good sitcom script is like a house: start building without a blueprint and you end up having to tear everything down and start over."
Unions
Like actors, professional playwrights and screenwriters have agents and unions. Playwrights are represented by the Dramatist's Guild and screenwriters by the Writers Guild of America. Their website (www.writersguild.com) contains many good resources for would-be writers and is well worth a visit.
Theatre
The Dramatist's Guild is a "professional association" rather than a union as such, with headquarters in New York and a branch office in Los Angeles. Rather than negotiating for basic minimum fees, they provide "standard contracts" for Broadway and regional theatre. Such contracts only suggest conditions, rights, and payments. It is up to the individual playwrights and their agents to negotiate specific fees. If a producer signs the standard contract he is obliged to abide by its conditions. Due to the limited services that this union provides the dues are low: only $75 per year.
Film and Television
Of the two, the WGA operates the most like a true labor union. It was founded in 1921, but it was not until 1941 that the first contract was signed. It represents those who write for film and television. It maintains offices in both West Hollywood and New York and currently has about 8,600 members. To qualify for membership writers must complete work under contract or sell dramatic material according to a point system. After accumulating twenty-four such "units" within three years the writer must pay a membership fee of $2,500. WGA has a minimum basic agreement (contract) which film and television producers are obliged to use to establish the minimum price they must pay for scripts. It also provides voluntary health and pension benefits for members who contribute to those funds. Writers may be employed on a week-to-week basis as is common in television, or compensated by flat rate as is usual with film scripts. Even writers who are not members may utilize WGA's script registration service, where for a fee writers may register their work and thereby protect it from plagiarism. There have been a number of cases in recent years where a writer's script was rejected by a producer only to show up as a remarkably similar movie some time later. The producers of both Amistad and The Truman Show made financial settlements with authors who made such claims. The union also provides guidelines for the proper formatting of screenplays and teleplays for a minimal fee. The WGA website contains a wealth of valuable information for those interested in a screenwriting career; especially useful is the link to Richard Toscan's "Playwriting Seminars" a really fine and easy-to-use online tutorial for anyone who wants to write a script for film or theatre.
The Guild also regulates the process of assigning credit for scripts that are written by more than one author. This is especially important in the world of television with its gang written scripts since a credited writer gets more money. No more than two writers may receive the "written by" credit, no matter how many writers contributed. It is often up to the show's executive producer to decide which of the staff writers, if any, will share such credit with the lead writer.
Salary
Our perceptions of writer's salaries are sometimes skewed by the media the same way actor's salaries are. News stories about a million dollars being paid to some college students who wrote a script over Christmas break send the wrong message. The WGA points out that many more people have been made millionaires by the California Lottery over the past ten years than from screenwriting! The WGA per-week minimum for television staff writers ranges from $2,457 to $3,117 depending upon how many weeks are worked. The credited writer(s) of a sitcom episode gets a minimum of $17,000 and may also qualify for residual payments for subsequent showings and syndication. Flat rate for film scripts has two levels: a low one for films budgeted at less than $2.5 million, and a high one for those over that. The flat fee minimum for an original screenplay is $38,303 (low budget) and $71,847 (high budget). As in the case of actors, these are merely minimums and a screenwriter with a good track record will earn more. There are probably fewer than 3000 members who earn a regular living at writing, and of those the average salary is about $50,000 per year.
Unlike film scripts which are written to be sold only once for a lump sum, plays are written to be "rented" many times by different theatres, therefore compensation is primarily by royalty. Royalties are the amount paid by a producing company for the right to perform the play. The amount of the royalty is based on several factors including the number of seats, the price of the tickets, and the number of performances. Playwrights may also earn additional income from the sale of published editions of the script (see below). Playwrights, therefore, earn their money in smaller payments over a period of time.
Scripts
When you first look at a published script you will notice that it contains two kinds of text: dialogue spoken by the characters, and stage directions usually printed in italics within parentheses. Stage directions include the following:
Some of these stage directions are provided by the playwright in the original manuscript, but others are added by the director and stage manager in the course of the first production.
The first time a play is performed it is done from the playwright's original manuscript and the producing company pays the playwright a negotiated royalty for this privilege; the minimum amounts being suggested by the Dramatist's Guild. After the play's initial run, the playwright negotiates with one of several companies who specialize in publishing scripts and handling their subsequent production rights and royalties. The two largest of these companies are Samuel French & Co., and the Dramatist's Play Service. Such a published script, called the acting edition, is soft cover and may include such things as a photograph of the set, stage directions, prop and costume lists, scenery floorplan, and other explanatory materials helpful to anyone wishing to stage it. If a play is sufficiently successful the playwright may gain additional income from sales of a hard cover reader's edition through a regular book publisher. The reader's edition is set in a more easily readable type and format, omits the technical details, and adds production photos. Film and television scripts are rarely published unless they have become acknowledged classics such as Citizen Kane, or cult favorites like Pulp Fiction.
Terrence McNally says "Playwriting is not about writing dialogue, it's about writing behavior." But dialogue is the only "code" we have to express behavior. When reading any script, remember that it is in a kind of shorthand. It assumes that the contributions of the actor, director, and designers will flesh-out the story. Unlike a novel, it may not contain all the information that you need to clearly understand it. Therefore, when you read a play script you should try to visualize the setting and see the actors as specific human beings in motion. When you read a script you are creating the production in your mind's eye.
Format
Play scripts are broken down into sections for convenience. The largest section is the Act, usually designated by a Roman numeral (Act I). Most classical plays follow the five-act form first suggested by the ancient Greeks. Since the 1800s it has become more typical to use only three acts. Today, some plays are divided into only two acts with an intermission break between them. Acts may be further broken down into scenes, normally designated by Arabic numerals (Scene 3). There may be any number of scenes, but usually scenes change when there is a shift in time or place. Since some scenes are quite long, directors may arbitrarily break them into so-called French scenes: the points when a character enters or exits the stage. This is done for the convenience of rehearsal. Actors, as a part of their character analysis, will often break scenes down even further into beats. Beats are the organizational sub-units of a scene, such as the points where a character's objectives change. Finally, beats can be broken down into individual lines. Indeed, some editions of Shakespeare's plays even have line numbers to facilitate discussion and close analysis of the text.
Screenplays do not use the traditional Act/Scene format, a convention which derives from literary and printing traditions. Rather, their divisible units are functions of the technology of the camera, both film and videotape. Their largest unit is the scene, which is divided into sequences, which are made up of shots. A shot is a continuous run of film which contains no cuts or edits. Shots in turn are composed of the smallest element: the frame. Instead of stage directions, as such, film "shooting" scripts contain shot notations in regard to the position and movement of the camera, and the focus and angle of the lens. Since these scripts are not intended to be read by laymen, only those who work in production need be able to interpret them.
Those who are seriously interested in writing should make sure their manuscripts are in the proper industry-standard format. Guidelines are published by the unions and are also available as computer software such as Final Draft. One of these programs, Dramatica, not only gives you the proper format but even assists you in plotting and creating characters.
Who Are They?
People can name any number of popular actors, but hardly anyone knows who writes the material that makes these actors famous. In the theatre very few playwrights are able to consistently write plays that are commercially, much less artistically, successful over a lifetime. It has been said that playwriting is the hardest form of literature because it is such a limiting form. Typically a playwright has one big hit, follows it with a modest success, then writes subsequent plays that seem to attract little attention. From our perspective at the end of the twentieth century it is easy to pick out some of the few who have overcome this pattern.
Tennessee Williams (1911-1983)
His The Glass Menagerie (1945) and A Streetcar Named Desire (1947) are American classics--always in professional production somewhere. Even if he had written nothing else, these two alone would qualify him for greatness. But he had further success with Night of the Iguana, Summer and Smoke, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Sweet Bird of Youth. Many consider him the greatest American serious playwright of the century. He is chiefly appreciated for the beauty and lyricism of his dialogue, and for creating indelible characters such as Blanche DuBois, Stanley Kowalski, and Laura Wingfield who have become a part of American popular culture.
Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)
Most theatre histories mention Eugene O'Neill in the same breath with Williams, and while he had tremendous impact on the theatre, his plays, like Desire Under the Elms (1924), A Long Day's Journey Into Night (1947) and The Ice Man Cometh (1956) are today more admired than produced. An exception was the season of 1998-99 which saw a revival of Long Day's Journey on Broadway and Hughie in Los Angeles. However, my point is bolstered by the fact that a revival of Williams' Salesman the same year won the Tony for best revival while O'Neill's play did not.
Arthur Miller (1916-2005)
Like Williams, Miller's reputation lies chiefly on two plays: The Death of a Salesman (1949) and The Crucible (1953). His other important works include All My Sons, A View from the Bridge, After the Fall, Incident at Vichy, and The Price. Salesman and Crucible have been made into movies twice, and both are constantly being produced for the stage. Miller surprised everyone in the sunset of his career with a Broadway success, Broken Glass (1996).
Neil Simon (1927- )
Simon made his fortune in comedy. His first big success, Barefoot in the Park (1963) was followed by a string of hits including The Odd Couple (1965), Plaza Suite (1970), The Sunshine Boys (1972), California Suite (1977), Biloxi Blues (1984), and Laughter on the 23rd Floor (1993). What really brought him into the public eye, and made him a multi-millionaire, was that every one of the plays listed above (and many others) became successful motion pictures. Simon is without a doubt the most commercially successful playwright in American history. And just like every clown who wants to play Hamlet, Simon has tried again and again to write more serious plays, but without equivalent success. He began as a television writer, then went on to stage, and finally film--a true man of his time.
Other Dramatists
As we get closer to our own era it gets more difficult to separate the latest phenomenon from those with real staying power. Based on major awards won and consistency of output, some of the most important American playwrights working today are: David Mamet, August Wilson, Alfred Uhry, Wendy Wasserstein, A. R. Gurney, Edward Albee, and Terrence McNally. Although the focus of this book is American drama, British writers are well-represented (some would say too well) on stage and screen in this country. Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons) and Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love) have had many popular successes.
One of the reasons it is so difficult to find many playwrights with long careers is that the successful ones are often lured by the big bucks to go to Hollywood to pursue screenwriting. It's interesting that screenwriters seem even less well-known by the general public than playwrights, even though they can make far more money. Unless a screenwriter is a writer-slash-director like Spike Lee, Oliver Stone, and Quentin Tarentino, or already well known as a novelist like Michael Crichton, no one will have heard of him. The situation is somewhat better in television which is principally a writer-producer's medium. The lead writer on a successful show will often be offered a "development deal" in which he becomes the writer-producer on a new show of his own. Star writers such as these get their names all over the credits. Many people have heard of Steven Bochco (NYPD Blue), David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, The Practice), Darren Star (Sex and the City, Melrose Place, Grosse Point) and Aaron Sorkin (Sportsnight, The West Wing).
Reading Assignment
No reading assignment today
Lecture Exercise
Why is it so difficult to find playwrights who have long careers writing for the stage today?
Hint: Those who are only reading the lectures only up to the point where they see an answer will get this wrong. Those who read the entire lecture have a better chance of getting it right.
Note that when submitting the answer start the subject line with:
TH101DE -- YourFirst&LastName -- L-11
Next lecture: Story: Genres I
Further Information
This is a newly added feature for the online class. As I stumble upon current information from various sources that extends and expands upon the subject of this lecture I will post links to them at the end. There is no credit offered for exposing yourself to this information. It is here for those students who have a curiousity about the subject matter and who understand that learning is its own reward.
"The Writer's Store" This is a segment from a half-hour weekly program called The Business on KCRW (89.9 FM). This program was originally aired on October 3, 2005 entitled "Taxes; Scientology; The Writer's Store." The part I want you to hear is last ten-minute segment of the program about the Writer's Store in Hollywood contains some interesting tidbits about students writing movie scripts. The link should take you to the kcrw.org website page for this program. From there scroll down to find the program and click on "listen." If your computer has the RealOne Player installed (free) it should load and start playing. If you scrub the progress button two-thirds the way across the playback progress bar you should be able to find the last segment on the Writer's Store and save some time. Another option is to download this episode as a free Podcast from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Go there and look for The Business, then the title of this episode. You can then play it your computer, iPod, or other MP3 player.