Event & Circumstance

Dietz says a play is a SERIES OF EVENTS THAT UNFOLD IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE.

We must distinguish between an ACTION and an EVENT.

Let us say that an ACTION is something that happens onstage.

An EVENT is something that happens onstage and MOVES THE STORY FORWARD.

So "Betty drops and spills a glass of water" is always an action, but not necessarily an event.

"Richard, a man Betty claims never to have met, enters the room and Betty instantly drops and spills a glass of water" IS an event.

"Betty drops and spills a glass of water over the letter from her missing husband that she's not yet read, rendering it unreadable" IS an event.

Often, I find that I have to help my students between EVENT and CIRCUMSTANCE.

CIRCUMSTANCE is the CONTEXT that gives meaning to the EVENT.

For example, a bridge blows up on an isolated road. Who cares? Not an event.

A bridge blows up on an isolated road, thirty seconds before a bus full of children hits the bridge going 70 miles per hour. One of those children is the daughter of our protagonist. We have reason to care.

"Our protagonist goes spelunking and there is a cave-in." Spelunking is the circumstance. The cave-in is the event.