Plays with interesting/good structure
Plays with interesting/good structure
Beanmatt
Chorus Member Joined: 5/16/03
#0Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 6:06pm
Hello all. My sister is taking her first theatre course in college and has to write a paper analyzing the structure of a play of her choice. She asked me if I had any suggestions, so I tried to think of examples with interesting structures off the top of my head (came up with: Betrayal (goes backwards), Miracle Worker (flashbacks), Chorus Line (inside-the-characters-head moments), Angels in America).
Anyway, thought I would post here to get some suggestions from all of you. Thanks so much!
(Sole instructions for the paper: analyze the structure of a play of your choice.)
#2re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 6:08pmThe Rimers of Eldritch
"Smart! And into all those exotic mystiques -- The Kama Sutra and Chinese techniques. I hear she knows more than seventy-five. Call me tomorrow if you're still alive!"
zbigner
Stand-by Joined: 12/10/03
#3re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 7:21pm
I'd recommend Death of a Salesman, but the professor probably gets that all the time. Albee's Three Tall Women had an interesting premise as I recall. There were three female characters that represented the three periods of a fourth woman's life.
I've only seen the movie, but doesn't the stage version of Steel Magnolias take place exclusively in the beauty shop with all the plot and character development conveyed through that setting?
Lifex3 showed the same basic scene replayed with slight variations to show how major changes can result from slightly different decisions by individuals. I didn't think it was a particularly good play, but the structure is interesting.
Hope this helps,
Zack
Pass it on - Take a kid to a show.
broadway_star_tomorrow
Broadway Legend Joined: 11/3/04
#4re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 7:29pm"Stop Kiss" by Diana Son.
AKA Idina Pashmina
Type_A_Tiff: There's nothing hard about her. Broadway_star_tomorrow: Yeah. Her arteries.
Type_A_Tiff: There's nothing hard about her. Broadway_star_tomorrow: Yeah. Her arteries.
MusicMan
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/16/03
#5re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 7:32pm
PLENTY by (I believe) David Rabe.
#6re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 7:33pm'Merrily We Roll Along' by Sondheim and Furth
"One no longer loves one's insight enough once one communicates it."
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
The opposite of creation isn't war, it's stagnation.
#7re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:00pmlast 5 years is good. i would also say the laramie project.
Be the change you wish to see in the world.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#8re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:01pm
There's also "Once in a Lifetime" by Kaufman and Hart, which Merrily we Roll Along is based on (it also goes backwards).
Also:
-- Copenhagen by Frayn (repeats a key meeting several times from several different perspectives).
-- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (tells two stories with two sets of characters 200 years apart in the same room)
-- Invention of Love by Stoppard (a sort of memory play where poet A.E. Housman tells the story of his life in a series of flashbacks)
-- How I Learned to Drive by Paula Vogel (presents the lead character, a victim of abuse, at multiple points in her life, from childhood to her 30s, nonchronologically -- really a remarkable piece of construction)
-- Well by Lisa Kron (a meta-constructed memory play with flashbacks, characters commenting on how honest the narrator is at telling the flashbacks to the audience, and the "actors" themselves seemingly stepping in and out of character commenting on the play and the playwright -- leaving the play entirely at one point. Absolutely brilliant).
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
#9re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:02pm"The Little Foxes" by Lillian Hellman.
"I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about." - Oscar Wilde
#10re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:03pmI was going to suggest A NUMBER by Caryl Churchill. Nothing with time, but it's still interesting.
"If you are going to do something, do it well. And leave something witchy."
-Charlie Manson
#11re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:06pmI'll vote for PLENTY and STOP KISS. Your sister is going to have a hard time getting copies of the scripts to things like THE LAST FIVE YEARS and MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG.
MargoChanning
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/5/04
#12re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:11pm
Which is also why I suggested "Once in a Lifetime' (which is readily available) rather than "Merrily."
And for Churchill, I'd suggest "Cloud Nine" -- simply comparing Act I vs. Act II would make for an interesting essay.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Yorkie1276
Stand-by Joined: 3/12/05
#13re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:12pmI second my favorite play, The Invention of Love.
#14re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:14pmLonely Planet. Two character play that alternates between soliloquies and interacting with each other.
BrdwayBaby
Understudy Joined: 1/24/04
#15re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:15pmI would have to say the laramie project. i just finished reading it and it definitly is a moving peice, and also has an intersting structure and story behind how it came about. wouldn't be hard to write a paper on, but would still be interesting.
"Gimme Gimme That Thing Called Love"
Yorkie1276
Stand-by Joined: 3/12/05
#16re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:16pmAlso, The Baltimore Waltz by Paula Vogel.
#17re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/2/05 at 10:22pm
I second..
Lonely Planet by Steven Dietz
The Laramie Project by Tectonic Theater Company
and The Kentucky Cycle parts 1 and 2
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#18re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 1:17amThe Sondheim-Furth musical "Merrily We Roll Along" is based on the Kaufman and Hart play, "Merrily We Roll Along".
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
Gothampc
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/20/03
#19re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 1:23amThe Glass Menagerie. It's a "memory" play, but also the first act ends on a very happy note (the show could end right there) and the second act ends on a downer. Also stage references to projections to be projected while show is being performed.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
#20re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 1:24amIf you're willing to dip into the classics, you might want to look at Shakespeare's MACBETH -- his shortest tragedy has a very unique and effective groundwork that makes it such a thrilling play. Shakespeare's Green World comedies are also tightly structured because they all have certain expectations that must be satisfied.
BlueWizard's blog: The Rambling Corner
HEDWIG: "The road is my home. In reflecting upon the people whom I have come upon in my travels, I cannot help but think of the people who have come upon me."
#21re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 1:58am
Oh, Merrily. 
[title of show] on Broadway. it's time. believe.
#22re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 3:00am
"Rise and Fall Of Little Voice"
"A Hatful Of Rain"
magruder
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/15/03
#23re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 9:53amI'd suggest SIGHT UNSEEN by Donald Margulies. As the play moves forward, the time frame changes from present to past, to even fragmenting one future scene into two different scenes, always revealing a little more about its characters with each time leap.
"Gif me the cobra jool!"
Beanmatt
Chorus Member Joined: 5/16/03
#24re: Plays with interesting/good structure
Posted: 4/3/05 at 6:50pm
Thank you all for your help and insight. She very much liked the idea of The Laramie Project (as it deals with something she has heard of before. I also suggested Sunday in the Park with George, but I think she wants to stay away from musicals).
Again, thank you!
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