by Will Dunne
Ana’s husband
In act two, scene 5, Ana seeks to convince Lane that it has been decades since she was in love with anyone. Ana describes her husband as an alcoholic geologist who was great fun but too wild and crazy to be a father. He died of cancer at the age of thirty-one, shortly after he gave up drinking at her request. This brief but memorable reference to Ana’s past helps both Lane and the audience understand that her attraction to Charles is serious and that she is not accustomed to carrying on with married men.
ANALYZING YOUR STORY
Offstage characters can be incidental to the onstage story or a critical part of it.
OFFSTAGE POPULATION
• Who are the offstage characters—past and present—in your play?
• In order of importance, who are the two or three most important offstage characters? What makes them stand out from the rest?
• It can be difficult for the audience to track names of characters they will never meet. Which offstage characters, if any, do not need to be referenced by name?
• Think about the world of your play. Have any important offstage characters been overlooked? If so, how would references to them affect the story?
• Are any offstage characters so important that they should be brought onstage? If so, who, and how would that change the story?
FOR EACH OFFSTAGE CHARACTER . . .
• Think about the offstage character’s dramatic function in the story. Why is it important to reference him or her in dialogue?
• What information about this character is revealed?
• Does the amount of information match his or her importance? If we need to remember the character, for example, have you included enough detail to make him or her memorable? If the character is of minor importance, have you included too much detail?
• Look at how and when the character is described in the story. Who refers to him or her? What is the onstage character’s “here and now” reason for doing so?
PLOT
While the terms “story” and “plot” are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings from a technical perspective.
“Story” is something that happens in the life of a character. In David Mamet’s Edmond, for example, a man walks out on his wife. “Plot” is a selection of events from the story organized in a certain order to reveal how they connect. In Mamet’s play, a man visits a fortune-teller who reads his palm and warns him that he is not where he belongs. Haunted by the fortune-teller’s words, the man returns home to his wife. When she begins to complain about the maid, he suddenly tells her that he is leaving and not coming back. Startled, she asks why. He confesses that he has not loved her for years, that she does not interest him spiritually or sexually, and that he can’t live this life anymore. He then walks out the door and into the night to search through the underworld of New York City for his true place.
In short, story is what happens. Plot is how and why it happens.
Both story and plot are made up of events—important happenings—that affect the world of the characters in a good or bad way. Some events are caused by characters who try to accomplish something and either succeed or fail. Some are triggered by outside forces, such as society, nature, or chance. Most dramatic events center on a beginning, ending, or change of some kind. Such events are usually arranged in chronological order, but there are exceptions, as in Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia, where scenes from the past are interwoven with scenes in the present, or Harold Pinter’s Betrayal, where the sequence of events unfolds in reverse order.
Since story structure may be linear or nonlinear, simple or complex, fast-paced or slow-moving, there is no formula to determine how many events a plot should include or how these events should be distributed over a framework of acts and scenes. Each scene in a play usually adds up to one main event, but it may include other, smaller events as well. What matters most is that each event is essential and occurs not in isolation but in relation to the rest of the plot, or throughline.
In a strong throughline, each event is a result of something that happened earlier and/or a trigger for something that will happen later. This dynamic produces a cause-and-effect chain of events that keeps moving the story forward and enables a transition to occur. Ideally, no event can be removed from this chain because the story would not make sense without it.
■ DOUBT: A PARABLE
Sentence synopsis
The principal of a Catholic elementary school launches a campaign to drive away a priest whom she suspects of being a child predator.
Paragraph synopsis
1964. The Bronx. Sister Aloysius, the principal of a Catholic elementary school, begins to suspect that the parish priest, Father Flynn, may be hiding an inappropriate relationship with an eighth-grade boy. Though she has no factual evidence to support this belief, she becomes increasingly certain of the priest’s guilt. Should she make her concerns public or not? Her decision to expose him leads to unexpected consequences, including questions about herself and the certainties that have ruled her life.
Chain of events
The plot is constructed so that almost every scene ties to at least one other scene as cause or effect. The exception is scene 3, which is described below the table.
CHAIN OF EVENTS: DOUBT: A PARABLE
Because of this This happens
Unknown circumstances (offstage)
Father Flynn delivers a sermon on the subject of doubt (1)
The dark nature of Flynn’s sermon (1)
Sister Aloysius worries about the priest’s influence on her students and orders Sister James to be on the lookout for trouble in her classroom (2)
Aloysius’s order to be on the lookout for trouble (2)
James reports to Aloysius a problem involving Flynn: he may have given wine to a student named Donald Muller during a visit to the rectory (4)
Unrelated circumstances (offstage)
Flynn gives the basketball team a pep talk (3)
James’s report about Flynn and Donald Muller (4)
The two nuns meet with Flynn under a false pretext so that Aloysius can grill him about the alcohol on Donald’s breath (5)
Aloysius’s interrogation of Flynn (5)
Flynn denies wrongdoing, claiming that Donald got caught stealing the wine from the sacristy and that Flynn remained silent to keep him out of trouble (5)
The insinuations underlying Aloysius’s questions (5)
Flynn delivers a sermon on the subject of gossip (6)
Flynn’s sermon on gossip (6)
James renounces her accusations against Flynn and sides with him against Aloysius (7)
The stress that James feels due to recent events (2–7)
James takes a leave of absence from the school, leaving Aloysius without an ally (offstage)
Aloysius’s phone call to Donald’s mother to request a meeting (5)
Mrs. Muller meets with Aloysius and, after hearing the charges against Flynn, unexpectedly sides with him (8)
Mrs. Muller’s presence in the school (8)
Flynn storms into Aloysius’s office to demand that she stop trying to ruin him (8)
Flynn forcing Aloysius into a showdown (8)
Aloysius demands that he confess and falsely claims to have proof of past child abuse (8)
Aloysius’s demands and threats (8)
Flynn relents and calls the bishop’s office to request a transfer (8)
Flynn’s transfer request (8)
The bishop sends Flynn to St. Jerome’s parish and promotes him to pastor (offstage)
Flynn’s promotion (offstage)
Aloysius finally brings her concerns about Flynn to Monsignor Benedict, who doesn’t believe her (offstage)
Aloysius’s failure to defeat Flynn (offstage)
Aloysius is overwhelmed by doubts that leave her bent with emotion as James tries to comfort her (9)
The dramatic function of scene 3. Flynn’s pep talk to the boys basketball team lies outside the ch
ain of events because it is not caused by previous onstage action, nor does it result directly in future onstage action. The scene is nevertheless important to the story because it introduces character information that affects our perception of events. By seeing Flynn in casual clothing, we are reminded that he is not only a priest but also a man. If he is a child predator, the scene shows how he lures boys to the rectory. If he is not a predator, the scene provides an innocent explanation for why a child might recoil from his touch: the long fingernails Flynn brags about.
■ TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Sentence synopsis
Sibling rivalry erupts when a petty thief tries to convince his brother, a reformed card hustler, to join him in a three-card monte scam and the brother turns him down.
Paragraph synopsis
Booth and Lincoln are African-American brothers whose names were given to them by their father as a joke. One is a petty thief who wants to be a three-card monte dealer even though he doesn’t have the skill to do it well. The other is a reformed card hustler who wants to earn an honest living even if the work is underpaid and demeaning. Having been abandoned by everyone else they know, the brothers now share a seedy rooming-house room where they must try to overcome a troubled family past, economic hardship, and social inequalities so that each can achieve his distinct vision of the American dream.
Chain of events
The plot includes significant offstage as well as onstage events as the dramatic journeys of the two protagonists unfold and intersect. The role of offstage events is described below the table.
CHAIN OF EVENTS: TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Because of this This happens
Booth scoring a date with his ex-girlfriend Grace (offstage)
Booth decides to win Grace back for good by becoming a rich three-card monte dealer (offstage)
Booth’s attempts to learn the art of three-card monte (1)
Booth sees how difficult it is to throw the cards and asks Lincoln to partner with him (1)
Booth’s business proposition (1)
Lincoln, a reformed card hustler, rejects Booth’s offer and the brothers get into a fight (1)
The brothers’ fight (1)
Booth tells Lincoln he will have to move out and Lincoln sings a song about the bad luck in his life (1)
Lincoln’s sad song (1)
The brothers reconnect (1)
The brothers’ reconnection (1)
• Booth the next night offers his brother expensive stolen clothing so they can both improve their image (2)
• Lincoln shares his weekly paycheck with Booth to cover their mutual living expenses (2)
• As the brothers celebrate, Lincoln opens up and reveals a fear of losing his job at the arcade (2)
Lincoln’s fear of losing his job (2)
Lincoln asks Booth to help him practice his assassination routine, but Booth has other plans: his date with Grace (2)
Booth’s date with Grace (offstage)
Booth returns home late that night and wakes up Lincoln to brag about his sexual exploits (3)
Booth’s bragging (3)
Lincoln capitalizes on Booth’s good mood by asking for help again with his assassination routine, but Booth is too tired and they get into another fight (3)
The brothers’ fight (3)
Lincoln makes up to Booth by offering to introduce him to his old three-card monte crew (3)
Lincoln’s offer of assistance (3)
Booth is too proud to accept the offer, but the brothers reconnect (3)
The brothers’ reconnection (3)
• Booth helps Lincoln practice his work routine (3)
• Booth tries to entice his brother back to card hustling, but Lincoln still says no (3)
Booth’s efforts to tempt Lincoln back to card hustling (1, 3)
Lincoln finally succumbs to his addiction to the cards and begins to practice the patter and moves of a dealer (4)
ACT BREAK*
Booth landing a second date with Grace (offstage)
Booth transforms the room into a romantic setting and tells Lincoln to spend the night elsewhere (offstage)
Lincoln losing his job at the arcade (offstage)
• Lincoln blows his severance pay in bars (offstage)
• Lincoln returns home in need of Booth’s company and discovers that Grace has stood up his brother (5)
Lincoln losing his job (offstage) and Booth getting stood up (5)
The brothers bond over memories of their childhood when they had to fend for themselves (5)
Lincoln’s return to the cards (4) and the brothers renewed bond (5)
Lincoln tries to teach Booth how to throw the cards, but Booth is still no good at it (5)
Booth’s frustration with failing to master the cards (5)
Booth finally acknowledges his larger failure—the loss of Grace—and storms away in a rage (5)
Booth’s loss of Grace (5)
Booth finds Grace and kills her (offstage)
Lincoln’s return to card hustling (4)
• Lincoln plays three-card monte on the street and wins $500 and a lot of admiration (offstage)
• Feeling like a topdog, Lincoln relishes his success (6)
Booth’s murder of Grace (offstage)
Booth returns home and covers up his crime by claiming that Lincoln will have to move out because Grace is marrying Booth and moving in (6)
Booth telling Lincoln to move out (6)
Full of confidence and flush with money, Lincoln agrees to go, but covers up his return to card hustling by claiming to have a new job as a security guard (6)
Lincoln’s quick agreement to move out (6)
Booth feels betrayed and taunts Lincoln about his failure to keep his job and to make his marriage work (6)
Growing tension between the brothers (6)
They face off over a game of three-card monte (6)
First round of three-card monte (6)
Lincoln lets Booth win (6)
Booth’s win (6)
Booth wants to play the second round “for real.” He bets the $500 his mother gave him years ago in a tied-up stocking and Lincoln bets the $500 he won tonight (6)
Second round of three-card monte (6)
Lincoln outfoxes Booth and wins (6)
Lincoln’s win (6)
Lincoln takes Booth’s money-filled stocking and threatens to cut it open to see what’s really inside (6)
Lincoln’s threat to cut open the stocking (6)
Booth stops him by confessing that he killed Grace (6)
Booth’s murder confession (6)
Lincoln offers to return the money stocking, but Booth dares him to follow through on his threat to open it and Lincoln starts to do so (6)
Lincoln’s attempt to cut open the stocking (6)
Booth stops Lincoln by shooting and killing him (6)
Booth’s murder of Lincoln (6)
Booth lashes out at Lincoln, but ends up wailing in grief over the loss of his brother (6)
* While the term “act” is not used in the script, the story divides into two major units of action.
The role of offstage events. Because the play has only one setting, the throughline relies more than usual on offstage events to drive the dramatic journeys of both brothers. Booth’s journey is significantly affected by what happens offstage between him and Grace, his ex-girlfriend. Lincoln’s journey is significantly affected by what happens at the arcade where he works. This approach enables the playwright to present full portraits of both brothers’ lives while maintaining the claustrophobic feeling of their single furnished room, which pits them against each other like two fighting dogs trapped in the same cage.
■ THE CLEAN HOUSE
Sentence synopsis
Three women—a doctor, a maid, and a housewife—struggle to overcome their differences as they care for a dying cancer patient who is in love with the doctor’s husband.
Paragraph synopsis
Lane is a success
ful married doctor who hires a Brazilian housekeeper named Matilde to clean her house. But Matilde gets depressed and stops cleaning because she would rather think up the perfect joke. Lane’s compulsive sister, Virginia, secretly comes to the rescue by doing Matilde’s job for her while Lane is at work. Life gets messy for all three women when they discover that Lane’s husband is in love with one of his cancer patients. As the women learn to deal with betrayal, loss, and class differences, they band together to care for the cancer patient in her final days, bringing new meaning to the words “I almost died laughing.”
Chain of events
Most events unfold in linear fashion through cause and effect. In keeping with the nonrealistic style of the play, however, there are also random events and timeframe manipulations. These exceptions are described below the table.
