by Will Dunne
Setting description. The general setting for the play is simply identified as “St. Nicholas, a Catholic church and school in the Bronx, New York, 1964.”
Inspirational quotes. Quotes from Akira Kurosawa, the book of Ecclesiastes, and Ptolemy suggest themes central to Aloysius’s dramatic journey from the comfort of certainty to the growing pains of doubt. For example, “‘Everything that is hard to attain is easily assailed by the mob.’ (Ptolemy).”
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Dedication. Parks dedicates the play to her husband while making reference to three-card monte, the shell game that dominates the story: “4 Paul Oscher who taught me how 2 throw the cards.” The use of digits for words reflects her often phonetic approach to dialogue.
Introduction. The playwright reveals how Topdog/Underdog evolved from an earlier work called The America Play and how she first got interested in three-card monte. She also states the play’s subject: “This is a play about family wounds and healing. Welcome to the family.”
Author’s note. In this “Elements of Style,” Parks explains her unique system for identifying pauses and silences during the dialogue. She also explains her use of parentheses to indicate lines that should be spoken softly and brackets to indicate lines that can be cut.
Character list. The two characters are listed by their first names: “Lincoln” and “Booth (aka 3 Card).” No ages are given here, but a character descriptor accompanies each name, with Lincoln indentified as “the topdog” and Booth, “the underdog.”
Setting description. The general setting for the play is summed up in only two words: “Here” and “Now.”
Inspirational quote. The front matter includes a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that metaphorically suggests the topdog/underdog relationship that runs through the play: “I am God in nature; I am a weed by the wall.”
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
Dedication. For a play that features two doctors married to each other, the dedication reads, “This play is dedicated to the doctors in my life, Tony and Kate.”
Character list. The five characters are listed in order of importance. Their descriptions are brief and highlight gender and age—for example: “Lane, a doctor, a woman in her early fifties. She wears white.” Information about double casting is included, with the direction that the actors who play Charles and Ana also play Matilde’s father and mother. The playwright also adds a special note about casting: “Everyone in this play should be able to tell a really good joke.”
Setting description. The two distinct worlds of the play are suggested by the fact that there are two different “Place” descriptions. One describes the white living room and the other something more magical: “A metaphysical Connecticut. Or, a house that is not far from the city and not far from the sea.”
Production notes. After the text of the play, the script includes detailed notes by the author about double casting, the optional use of subtitles, and the pronunciation of Matilde’s name, as well as sample jokes—in both Portuguese and English—that Matilde can tell during the play.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
Review your title page, character list, setting description, and any other elements that appear in the script before or after the play.
OTHER SCRIPT ELEMENTS
• Does the title page include your complete contact information, the date of the draft, and a copyright notice?
• A character list features each character’s name and usually his or her gender and/or age. A brief character description may also be included. Is your character list complete?
• A setting description sums up where and when the story takes place. Is your setting description complete?
• If you wish to include a list of scenes, how has each scene been identified?
• If you wish to dedicate the play to someone, how will the dedication read?
• If you wish to include an inspirational quote that suggests the play’s subject or theme, what is the exact wording of the quote? What is the source?
• Should you include any special notes about the staging of the play? If so, what instructions are essential and how economically can they be stated?
• Should you include a preface that explains why you wrote the play or what it’s about? If so, what information do you wish to share with the script reader?
The Big Picture
While juggling the many, often complicated details of a dramatic story, the writer can easily lose track of what matters most. By keeping the big picture in mind—who the story is about, what it’s about, and where it ends in relation to where it begins—the writer can make more informed writing decisions at the scenic level, where the path of the dramatic journey is forged.
TITLE
The title of a dramatic story is important not only because it suggests what the story is about but also because it contributes to our initial impression of the story concept and has the power to raise expectations or questions that will draw us into the world of the characters.
Some titles state the subject of the story either literally (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time) or figuratively (Blackbird). Some identify important characters by name (Macbeth) or by description (The Whale). Titles can make statements (Joe Turner’s Come and Gone) or ask questions (Whose Life Is It Anyway?). They can highlight settings (Clybourne Park), timelines (Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992), physical life (The Chairs), main events (Death of a Salesman), and more.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
Shanley’s title tells us the subject of the story—doubt—and thus steers us away from the more sensational aspects of the script, such as allegations of pedophilia and corruption in the Catholic Church. In interviews, Shanley has said that the idea to write a play about doubt was triggered by the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, when political leaders appeared to be so certain about the need for war that they left no room for doubt in their justifications for a preemptive strike. Shanley contends that leaders today are reluctant to express doubt because it is perceived as a symptom of weakness rather than a hallmark of wisdom.
These thoughts about the impetus for the play help explain why the title is not simply Doubt but Doubt: A Parable. Like the stories in Father Flynn’s sermons, the play itself is a parable about certainty and doubt in modern life. Webster defines “parable” as a short, simple story from which a moral or religious lesson may be learned. In this case, the moral of the story is that doubt can be a good thing. Or, as Father Flynn tells us in his opening sermon: “Doubt can be a bond as powerful and sustaining as certainty. When you are alone, you are not lost.”
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Parks’s title describes the two brothers whom we will meet in the story and their ongoing competition for power and control. The allusion to dog fighting suggests that this contest is a vicious one. The older brother, Lincoln, is identified in the script’s front matter as the “topdog” in the contest—the one most likely to succeed—while the younger brother, Booth, is the “underdog.” However, these roles keep changing as the balance of power shifts back and forth. Each word in the title could thus refer to either brother at different times in the course of the story.
The slash in the title typographically joins the two terms, suggesting that “topdog” and “underdog” are halves of the same whole, with their opposition binding them together. For one to succeed, the other must fail.
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
Literally, Ruhl’s title refers to the main setting of the play: the all-white living room that will become progressively dirtier and messier as the dramatic action unfolds. The title thus prepares us for a play about cleaning and different people’s perspectives on it. Of the three protagonists, two do not like to clean and one is obsessed with it. Woven into this concept is the history of women as housewives whose traditional task is to keep the premises clean and, in doing so, to play a subservient role in the lives of their husbands.
Figuratively, the title suggests a different type of cleanliness: a pe
rfect life without flaws, complications, or disappointments. The definite article “the” in the title suggests that this clean house is the ultimate realization of such perfection, an ideal state that can never actually be attained because, just as dust and dirt keep accumulating in the physical house, personal problems and challenges keep disrupting the lives of its inhabitants.
The use of the term “house” rather than “home” suggests the sterile environment that can result when one tries relentlessly to control life and avoid the messy emotions of love, friendship, and loss. It is not until such entanglements are allowed and embraced that real relationships can develop and the “house” can become a “home.”
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
The title for a dramatic story might be the first thing or last thing you decide when developing a script. Or it might emerge during the writing or revision process as you discover what matters most. Analyzing a story’s title can sometimes be a good way to analyze the story itself.
TITLE AND STORY
• What is the title of your story?
• What does the title communicate about the plot? About the theme?
• Does the title fit the story’s genre and style? If it is a comedy, for example, does it sound like one?
• How well does your title fit the story’s dramatic focus? If the story centers on the dramatic journey of one character, does the title support this?
• A title may have a metaphorical meaning as well as a literal one. Can your title be interpreted in more than one way? If so, how do each of its meanings relate to the story?
• Does the title capture the gist of the story without giving away the ending?
• Why is this title the best choice for the story you want to tell?
• If you had to use a different title, what would it be?
TITLE AND AUDIENCE
• Are there other works in the marketplace with similar titles? If so, how might that affect the success of your work?
• How well will the title work as a marketing tool to stir up interest in your play and draw an audience to the theatre? What about the title is most appealing?
• How easy is the title to say and remember?
• What might this title suggest to someone who knows little about the story? Is that the kind of response you want to evoke, and why?
• How might your title affect an audience’s perception of the story as they are watching it? Is that the response you want, and why?
CHARACTERS
To think of great plays is to think of great characters: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Richard III in the Shakespearean plays that bear their names; Nora Helmer in A Doll’s House; Blanche Dubois and Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire; Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman; Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot; James and Mary Tyrone in Long Day’s Journey into Night; Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun; George and Lennie in Of Mice and Men; Babe, Meg, and Lenny in Crimes of the Heart; George and Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?; Mama Nadi in Ruined. Memorable figures like these illustrate the principle that character and story are virtually the same thing: the character is the story.
Dramatic characters often give us insights into ourselves and the people around us, but they are not themselves human beings. Rather, they are metaphors for human beings with heightened traits, histories, and behaviors that enable us, usually in one sitting, to grasp certain truths about them and why they act the way they do. Ideally, most of the events that occur in a dramatic story are shaped by character needs and reveal not only who the characters are, but also how they change and don’t change under stress.
One key to understanding any character is to know what he or she wants most. This burning desire helps drive the story, create rising conflict, and keep us engaged as we wait to see whether the character will succeed.
From a technical perspective, each character has a dramatic function that is essential to the story. One might act as a protagonist, or main character. Another might act as an antagonist, or opponent of the main character. Some might perform other roles in advancing or thwarting the main character’s dramatic journey or in illuminating the story’s theme. Ideally, each character has a reason to be in the play and a distinct role in how it unfolds.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
While Shanley’s play brings us into the world of a Catholic elementary school with 372 students and a full staff, we meet only four characters onstage: Sister Aloysius, Father Flynn, Sister James, and Mrs. Muller. Each has a title—“Sister,” “Father,” or “Mrs.”—that not only pinpoints his or her status but also reinforces the formal nature of this world, where characters keep an emotional distance from one another and personal matters are rarely discussed.
Sister Aloysius Beauvier
Personal description. Sister Aloysius is a Sister of Charity named after St. Aloysius Gonzaga, a Jesuit student who died while caring for victims of a plague in sixteenth-century Rome and was later canonized as the patron saint of young students. This namesake is an apt match for Aloysius, who attempts to protect young students from a different type of peril. Her last name, Beauvier, appears in the list of characters at the front of the script but is never spoken in dialogue. The name has no special significance in the Catholic Church and may have been her surname before entering the convent.
The oldest character in the play, “in her fifties or sixties,” Aloysius is a seasoned nun and teacher who has become the principal of St. Nicholas school. It’s a small pond, but she’s a big fish in it. She’s in charge. Most notably, Aloysius is firm in her beliefs and fast in her determination to prove them right. She is an avid proponent of the Catholic school system, strict discipline, true fountain pens, and good penmanship. She is an avid opponent of restless minds, art and dance classes, and ballpoint pens. Aloysius was once married to a soldier who fought against Hitler in World War II, and so comes to the convent with a more worldly early life than those of the other nuns.
Burning desire. What Aloysius wants most in the story is to expose Flynn as a child predator and drive him out of her school. She sums up this goal in scene 5 when, in reference to Flynn, she tells James, “I’ll bring him down. With or without your help.”
Dramatic function. Aloysius is the play’s main character, or protagonist. Her quest creates the throughline of the story by causing a certain sequence of dramatic events to occur. From a thematic perspective, the other characters in the play exist to shape this quest and affect its outcome. Such dynamics keep Aloysius at the center of everything that happens onstage. As a result, she is not only essential to the story. She is the story.
Doubt is a play that puts certainty on a collision course with doubt. In this scenario, Aloysius embodies certainty that has no doubt to balance it. As she attempts to fulfill her duties as a school principal, her approach reflects an assumption of perfect knowledge that precludes error and eliminates the need for self-reflection. It is such certainty that the playwright seeks first to establish and then to shatter. The power of this certainty is so strong that it is not until the final moments of the play that it finally comes undone.
Father Brendan Flynn
Personal description. A Roman Catholic priest in his late thirties, Father Flynn comes from an Irish working-class family in the northeast and has been at St. Nicholas for about a year. This is his third parish in five years, a transience that Aloysius finds alarming. Popular and charismatic, he coaches schoolboys at basketball and counsels them in the rectory over cookies and Kool-Aid.
Like most priests, Flynn is a sermonizer. He delivers two sermons during the play and, like the playwright, uses parables to make his points. Flynn is also a note taker. He always carries a small notebook and uses a ballpoint pen to jot down ideas for sermons.
Flynn is the only onstage character in scenes 1, 3, and 6, a fact that literally isolates him from the other characters and adds to his mystery. It is not until halfway through the play—scene 5—that he interacts with Aloysius and Jam
es. His first name is uttered only once: in scene 8, when he calls the bishop’s office to request an appointment and identifies himself as “Father Brendan Flynn.” He is otherwise referred to as “Father,” a constant reminder of his clerical status and leadership position.
Burning desire. What Flynn wants most is to protect his reputation so he can continue his activities as a priest. He refers to this goal in scene 8, when he asks Aloysius to end her campaign against him: “If you say these things, I won’t be able to do my work in the community.”
Dramatic function. Flynn occasionally acts as a raisonneur, a character who states the story’s thematic ideas. His primary role, however, is that of the antagonist, Aloysius’s chief opponent. His dramatic purpose as the antagonist is to incite Aloysius’s quest by delivering a sermon that disturbs her and then to provide the conflict for that quest by resisting her efforts to force him out of the parish after she suspects him of child abuse. Without Flynn, business at St. Nicholas would be conducted as usual and there would be no reason for a play.
While his background is unknown, Flynn may be one who, like the shipwrecked sailor in his opening sermon, has questioned the direction of his life and experienced a crisis of faith. In thematic terms, he embodies the forces of doubt that are pitted against the forces of certainty and cause the conflict to rise to a crisis.
In the realm of character possibilities, Flynn could have been a nonclerical member of the staff. Instead Shanley developed him as the parish priest. This status makes Flynn a more formidable foe for Aloysius, due to the aura of holiness it confers—in the 1960s, it was difficult to question a priest’s moral character—and to the power of the Church it puts behind him: Flynn outranks Aloysius and is well protected by the patriarchal system.
