Character, Scene, and Story

by Will Dunne

  6. Color. If one were to stand alone in the Givingses’ living room and look around, a color that might suddenly stand out is green. Imagine yourself alone in the setting of your scene. What color might suddenly catch your eye?

  7. Where color resides. The green that stands out in the Givingses’ living room is the glass of the electrical lamp, which is on and seems bright in this otherwise dim room full of shadows. Think about the color that caught your eye. What were you looking at?

  8. Sounds. In the Givingses’ living room now, one might hear a muffled sound of two men talking in the next room. Listen to your setting. What do you hear now, either in this place or from somewhere nearby?

  9. Smells. There is a faint aroma in the Givingses’ living room of herbal tea brewing in a teapot. What do you smell now in your setting or from somewhere nearby?

  10. Feeling. Sealed by closed doors and curtains, this room feels like a sumptuous cage: comfortable but confining. Use a simile or metaphor to describe your setting.

  11. Object in action. After his treatment in the next room, Leo will be distracted by the light of the electrical lamp, and Catherine will turn it off for him. This will lead to an unexpected moment of intimacy in which he compares the light bulb—a “light without a flame”—to “relations with a prostitute.” Both, he says, are only the “outer trappings of the act.” In the Victorian era, even the mention of prostitution is scandalous, so for Catherine the moment is awkward and, in a naughty way, exciting. Identify an object or physical element in your setting that could influence your scene, and describe how.

  12. Another object in action. The closed curtains also will play a role in Ruhl’s scene. After the electrical light in the room is turned off, Leo will part those curtains to show Catherine the world outside as darkness falls and distant windows of neighbors begin to light up in the darkness. “Little squares of light, other people’s lives,” he says, “sheltered against the night, so hopeful . . .” Find another object or physical element in your setting that could play a role in your scene. Describe its use or purpose.

  13. Social context. Most places have a code of conduct—a set of rules and expectations—that people here are expected to observe. If you wish to speak in a library, for example, you are supposed to whisper. If you wish to speak in a classroom, you are supposed to raise your hand. Here is an important code of conduct for the Givingses’ living room: when patients arrive at the front door, Catherine is supposed to hide so they do not see her. Think about the codes of conduct that govern your setting. Identify a rule or expectation that is relevant to your scene because a character will either obey it or rebel against it.

  14. Impact on action. Catherine is supposed to hide when patients arrive. This rule is important because it is a restriction she will choose to ignore when she accidentally meets Leo in the living room. The forbidden nature of their encounter adds to the excitement she feels in talking with him. Think about the code of conduct you identified for your setting. Describe how it might influence your scene.

  15. History. Every setting has a history of events that may influence what happens here and now. In the history of the Givingses’ living room, the parade of patients who come and go have mostly been women. The presence of a male patient now is a rare phenomenon that sparks Catherine’s decision to break the household rules and entertain Leo over tea. Identify a fact from the history of your setting that could influence your scene.

  ■ CHARACTER 1: HERE AND NOW

  Focus next on Character 1 in this place at this time.

  1. Relationship to setting. Catherine’s relationship to the living room is personal. This is her home. What is the nature of your Character 1’s relationship to the setting when your scene begins—for example, personal, professional, social, economic, religious, academic, or accidental?

  2. Why here now. Catherine enters the living room now because the wet nurse is in the nursery with the baby and her husband is in the operating theater with a patient. Alone and bored, she has nowhere else to go. Why is your Character 1 here now?

  3. Appearance. Catherine is dressed in formal Victorian clothing that includes a floor-length multilayered dress, a bustle, a corset, a hoop, many underthings, including bloomers, and numerous buttons and ties, all of which serve to seal her inside the dress and also to disguise her female form. Her hair is bound in an elaborate bun to keep it from flowing freely. In short, she is a vision of containment. Describe your Character 1’s physical appearance here and now. Include an unusual or telling detail.

  4. Last significant experience here. Over the past two weeks, animated by the presence of the wet nurse in the house and her feelings of failure as a mother, Catherine has been secretly breaking household rules, the biggest of which is to keep out of her husband’s operating theater, especially when he’s not there. Two weeks ago, using a hatpin to pick the lock on the door, Catherine sneaked in with one of her husband’s patients, Mrs. Daldry, and explored the mystery of vibrators while he was at his club. If your Character 1 has been in your setting before, recount his or her last significant experience here. If the character has never been here before, go to the next question.

  5. Likes most. What Catherine likes most about her living room is the social life it offers: the opportunity to meet the patients who come to see her husband. However, she can visit with them only when her husband is in the next room working or away from home so that he is not aware of what she’s doing. What does your Character 1 like most about your setting here and now?

  6. Likes least. What Catherine likes least about her living room is the stale air that hangs within the walls and compels her occasionally to run outside for fresh air, even if it is raining, What does your Character 1 like least about your setting now?

  ■ CHARACTER 2: HERE AND NOW

  Focus next on Character 2 in this place at this time.

  1. Relationship to setting. Leo’s relationship to the Givingses’ living room is professional. He is a patient of Catherine’s husband and must pass through the living room to reach the doctor’s office and then again to exit from it. What is your Character 2’s relationship to the setting when your scene begins?

  2. Why here now. After feeling emotionally and artistically blocked for nine months due to a failed love affair, Leo has reached the point in his life where he must take drastic measures to start painting again. He has thus come here today to be treated by the renowned Dr. Givings, who observes that “hysteria” is very rare in men, except for artists. In your scene, why is Character 2 here now?

  3. Appearance. Leo is handsome and wild-eyed. He detests modernity, so he is dressed in an old-fashioned coat that his father had thrown away. Having just received electrical therapy in the next room, Leo glows with health and vitality. Describe your Character 2’s physical appearance here and now. Include an unusual or telling detail.

  4. Last significant experience here. This is Leo’s first visit to Dr. Givings, so he has no history in this place other than the electrical therapy he just received in the next room. That treatment has inspired him to be unusually honest and passionate with Catherine, and this will, in turn, lead her to develop a secret attraction to him. If your Character 2 has been in your setting before, sum up his or her last significant experience here. If the character has never been here before, go to the next question.

  5. Likes most. What Leo likes most about the Givingses’ living room is the growing darkness here as evening falls with the lamp turned off. This is his favorite time of day, and he enjoys sitting here in the dark with Catherine. What does your Character 2 like most about the setting here and now?

  6. Likes least. What Leo likes least about the Givingses’ living room are the electrical lamps that surround him, products of the modernity that he despises. What does your Character 2 like least about your setting now?

  ■ KEY FINDINGS

  As you explored your scene’s physical life and the truths it reveals, you may have found many new possibilities for dramatic action. Fo
cus on those that matter most.

  1. Pivotal object. In the physical life of Ruhl’s scene, the most important object is the green electrical lamp. What object or physical element in your setting feels most important to you now?

  2. Impact on action. The light from the green lamp will lead Leo to compare electric light to relations with a prostitute. By triggering a moment of intimacy and opening Catherine’s eyes to the possibility of Leo as a romantic partner, the lamp thus triggers the main event of the scene. Think about the pivotal object in your scene. What role might it play in the dramatic action?

  WRAP-UP

  As you develop your story, it is important to know the physical realm your characters inhabit and to understand how it affects, and is affected by, story events. Physical life is the real world of the story: the concrete reality that keeps the characters grounded and roots the dramatic action in the here and now.

  Related tools in The Dramatic Writer’s Companion. To learn more about the physical life of a scene, go to the “Causing a Scene” section and try “Where in the World Are We?” or “In the Realm of the Senses.”

  WHAT’S NEW? WHAT’S STILL TRUE?

  THE QUICK VERSION

  Explore the given circumstances for a scene

  BEST TIME FOR THIS

  During scene planning

  SOME THINGS CHANGE, SOME DON’T

  We typically enter the world of a dramatic story when something new happens in the lives of the characters. To experience something new is to find out that your sister tried to kill her husband (Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley). Or it is to fall in love with your computer operating system (Her by Spike Jonze).

  Dramatic characters tend to encounter many events they have never experienced before, and it is often the unfamiliarity of these developments that leads to conflict and drama. Something may be new because it never happened before—for example, you enroll in law school to win back the boyfriend who dumped you (Legally Blonde by Amanda Brown, Karen McCullah, and Kirsten Smith). Or something may be considered new because even though it has been true for some time, you are just discovering it now—for example, that your lover is transgender (The Danish Girl by Lucinda Coxon based on a novel by David Ebershoff).

  What’s new in the world of your story may be a good thing: you become the protégé of an acclaimed fiction writer (Collected Stories by Donald Margulies). Or it may be a bad thing: you find a strange man’s hat in your girlfriend’s apartment (The Motherfucker with the Hat by Stephen Adly Guirgis). Dramatic action is the result of how the characters deal with the new situation.

  A dramatic story is also about what is not new: what is still true in spite of the events that have taken place up to now. It may be good that a certain truth has endured: your great love for someone survives all obstacles, even death (Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare). Or it may be bad: you can’t overcome your addiction to war (The Hurt Locker by Mark Boal).

  Sometimes what isn’t new is the point of a scene—for example, your mother is still a morphine addict (Long Day’s Journey into Night by Eugene O’Neill). And sometimes what isn’t new is even the point of the whole story—for example, you will always be in love with someone who is in love with someone else (No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre).

  ABOUT THE EXERCISE

  This exercise can help you flesh out the given circumstances for a scene and how they might influence the dramatic action. The goal is to explore the present in relationship to the past, especially the recent past, in order to understand what has changed and not changed in the world of the story as your scene unfolds.

  Examples are from act 2, scene 2, of Anna in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz, recipient of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The story is set in Florida in 1929 at the start of the Great Depression. The setting is a Cuban American cigar factory where workers are both educated and entertained by lectors who read aloud to them while they hand-roll cigars. Readings range from newspaper articles to literature. When a new lector from Cuba begins to read from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, however, he arouses discontent and dreams of a better life among his listeners.

  Character 1 in the exercise scene is Palomo, age forty-one, a cigar roller in the factory. Character 2 is Conchita, age thirty-two, daughter of the factory owner and also a cigar roller. Their relationship: husband and wife in a passionless marriage. The main event of the scene: Palomo rekindles his passion for his wife by getting her to tell him the salacious details of her marital infidelity so that he can experience it vicariously.

  To prepare for the exercise, choose a scene you wish to develop, identify the two most important characters—Characters 1 and 2—and define their relationship. Then sum up the main event of the scene as you see it now: what happens overall.

  ■ SCENIC CONTEXT

  Define where and when the dramatic action occurs.

  1. Setting. Cruz’s scene takes place in a Florida cigar factory where workers sit at tables and hand-roll cigars. Identify the setting for your scene.

  2. Time. It is the end of a workday after most of the other factory workers have left. Conchita has recently turned her flirtation with the new lector, Juan Julian, into a sexual affair. She has done this to substitute for the lovemaking she no longer receives from her husband. Identify when your scene take place.

  ■ WHAT’S NEW?

  The given circumstances for a scene reflect what is happening in the world of the story as the scene begins. These circumstances may be physical, psychological, social, economic, political, or spiritual.

  1. Setting. The exercise scene occurs in the second act of the play in a setting we have seen before. What’s new about the setting now is not so much how it looks to the workers or the audience but rather how it is perceived by Conchita. This factory for her is no longer just a workplace. It is also where she secretly meets her lover, Juan Julian, for steamy encounters in the back room. This new dimension of the setting will add to the passion with which she speaks about her lover during the scene.

  Think about the setting for your scene in relation to the given circumstances. Is there anything new about this place at this time that could influence the dramatic action? Compared to the past, for example, has the physical environment changed in any way for better or worse? Does it look different? Or sound different? Or does it smell or feel different? Perhaps there is an important object here now that wasn’t here before. Or perhaps your characters view this place differently because of something that happened here or elsewhere. This is a discovery exercise. What’s new about your setting when the scene begins, and how might this affect the dramatic action?

  2. Character 1. Palomo has ended up in a passionless marriage with the factory owner’s daughter. What’s new for Palomo when the scene begins is the realization that his wife has changed since the new lector from Cuba arrived and that she is probably having an affair with him. This conclusion will arouse Palomo’s need to confront his wife and find out what she’s been up to.

  Think about what’s been happening in your Character 1’s life just before your scene begins. Are there any new physical, psychological, or social developments that might influence his or her behavior now? If so, what’s new for Character 1 when the scene begins, and how might this affect the action?

  3. Character 2. Conchita’s affair with Juan Julian started a few days ago. What’s new now is that in her last encounter with him, she experienced a passion so profound and so engulfing that it terrified her—in a good way. This experience will enable her to open up and admit the truth about the affair when her husband confronts her. She has been liberated from the chains of secrecy and guilt.

  Think about what your Character 2 has been up to recently. Are there any new developments that might influence his or her behavior in the scene? If so, what’s new for Character 2 when the scene begins, and how might this affect the action?

  4. World of the story. There has been a disturbing change recently in the world of the cigar factory. One of the owners, Conchita’s unpopular
half-uncle, Cheché, in response to low sales, has introduced a new cigar-rolling machine that he wants the factory to adopt. The workers see this as a threat to their jobs. The resulting tension in the factory adds to the go-for-broke honesty between Palomo and Conchita in the scene. What’s at risk is not only their marriage but also their livelihood.

  Think about the world of your story. Life is happening. Certain physical, psychological, and social developments are taking place. What’s new in this world when your scene begins, and how might this affect the action?

  5. Event. You’ve been exploring what’s new in the lives of your characters when the scene begins. Shift your focus forward now to the dramatic event that will unfold here and now. Something new will happen. In the scene between Palomo and Conchita, a secret will be exposed, and he will connect with his wife sexually by imagining her with her lover. What’s new about what will happen between your characters in your scene?

  ■ WHAT’S STILL TRUE?

  A dramatic story is about not only what has changed in the lives of the characters but also what has not changed. Look next for enduring truths in the world of your story.

  1. Setting. Many important truths endure in the cigar factory where Palomo and Conchita work. This factory is what brought them together in the first place: he was a worker who married the owner’s daughter. It’s also what brought Juan Julian into their lives: he came here from Cuba to work as a lector. In addition, the factory is what keeps them trapped together as they struggle through the challenges of a romantic triangle. Because of the factory, they must deal with each other every day. Palomo has to roll cigars here while his wife’s lover reads aloud to her and the other workers. This physical trap adds urgency and importance to Palomo’s need in the scene to confront his wife about what’s going on when Juan Julian isn’t reading.