Margulies (Playwrights Teach Playwriting) EXERCISES!

DONALD MARGULIES

Margulies argues more for teaching structure than any of the other playwrights in the book. He says playwriting “requires a knack for distilling experience into stories” (22). He says that he has his students read a different play every week, and that they then take that play apart in terms of its structure; “we talk about how the plays are built, how stories determine the structure of their telling and not the other way around” (23).

This is an important point. He’s not arguing for an Aristotelian structure, per se – he’s saying that “every story has an inherent structure; your job is to figure out what that structure is and employ it.

Margulies recommends Sweet’s The Dramatists Toolkit, Brande’s Becoming a Writer, and Hayman’s How to Read a Play. Linney recommends McLaughlin’s The Playwrights Progress.

Margulies included a lot of great exercises:

ARBUS EXERCISE (CHARACTER)
1) Give the class a series of photographs by Diane Arbus – or any photos with strange folks, not people they’d know. Curious photographs.
2) Have each student create a list of six or seven questions they’d ask this person – not “when’s your birthday” questions, but “elliptical, non sequitur ones like ‘what was the most puzzling thing about your best friend in third grade’” (25). Or ask who gave them articles of clothing in the picture…etc.
3) Have them then answer the questions in the voice of that character.
4) (EXTENSION) Have each student share his or her photo and share one or two of the responses to questions.
5) Have each student choose two characters and put them in conflict – one wants something the other is unwilling to give.

AUNT DAN AND LEMON EXERCISE (CHARACTER DIFFERENTIATION)
1) In Aunt Dan and Lemon, one of the characters speaks, persuasively, for Nazi/fascist beliefs.
2) Have the students write a monologue where the character is arguing the opposite of something you truly believe. Give that person a voice – and dignity – and a good argument.

TOP GIRLS EXERCISE
1) Include a real historical figure in your play. Not someone off-the-wall; have there be a good reason for your choice, one that feeds back into your play.

SIX DEGREES OF SEPARATION (THEME/PLOT)
1) Have each student bring in two articles from that week’s newspaper.
2) Have each student choose two articles they didn’t bring.
3) Have each student write a short play that tells the story of one of the articles.

BETRAYAL SCENE
1) Read the “Torcello” scene.
2) Have students write a two-person scene where Character A manipulates Character B with information but never reveals that information directly.

FIRST DATE PLAY
1) In five scenes or fewer, write a play about your parents’ first date.
2) The scenes don’t have to be the same stylistically, and they don’t have to be told in linear order.

SIX LINES
1) Write a play in six lines. How much story can we get?
2) Read them the next day.

Margulies cautions that students shouldn’t revise and revise and revise a play because, at some point, revision can be come about the avoidance of writing the next play.
He argues for exposure to good theater, above all else, as a way of learning the craft.