To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:48:28 -0500
Subject: [Puptcrit] Adapting Grimm's Fairy Tales...


Here's a tip about playwriting that I learned years ago at the Playwright's 
Workshop at the University of Iowa.  It would take a really long time to 
fully explain it, but here's the general concept which you might find 
useful:

We're all told that a play has to have "a beginning, middle and an end." 
But that is really too vague, and doesn't help much.  The real key - and 
this goes for other literature as well as plays - is that every story leads 
up to two endings: the ostensive ending and the subliminal ending: the 
ostensive ending being the one you see, and the subliminal ending being the 
one that you feel.

For example, consider the film "Rocky."  In the end, he loses the fight (to 
the heavyweight champ) but he wins the girl (she hugs him and cries, "I love 
you").  So, the ostensive ending (meaning the plot) has to do with his 
training for a prize fight, which he loses, but the subliminal ending has to 
do with the issue of him becoming a better person.

So, a good play is not just about laying out a plot.  It's about the issues 
that drive the characters - even in a "simple" children's story.  Take any 
story that you know and ask yourself this question: what are the ostensive 
and subliminal endings?  You'll find them every time.

That's the "tip of the iceberg."

Robert Rogers 

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