THE BOY WILL (Historical fantasy)
Scenario for a one-act play, by
Robert Emmons Rogers
Characters
(in order of their appearance)
- Master George Peele, player of the Admiral's Company.
- Giles, a plump and peevish old rogue, a tapster.
- Anne Hathaway, at sixteen a slim girl, niece to Giles.
- Will Shakespeare, a sturdy, ruddy boy, Anne's playmate.
- Mistress Shakespeare, a kindly faced woman of middle age, Will's mother.
Within the White Luces Inn on a late afternoon in spring, 1582. (Here a description of the interior would follow.)
- Peele is eating and drinking at the inn, waited on by Anne Hathaway.
- Anne, scolded by Giles for her slowness, is commended as comely and spirited by Peele.
- Peele abuses Stratford as a sleepy hole.
- Anne explains her delay in fetching ale by the fact that Mistress Shakespeare has been at the back door inquiring for Will who has been gone all day.
- Giles explains Will to Peele as a young poacher.
- Anne indignantly denies the charge and praises Will as the brightest boy in Stratford.
- Giles accuses him of gawking at plays and predicts a bad end for the boy.
- Peele resents the implication.
- Singing a May-day catch, Will enters. Afraid to go home because he has been wasting his day in Charlecote Park and fears father's scolding.
- Goes off into a golden dream of his day in the woods.
- Peele attracts his attention by announcing his profession.
- Will shows his interest.
- Is too distracted by Peele to eat.
- Peele announces itinerary of his players and kindles Will's imagination with a mention of the Queen.
- Threatens to carry Will off to London.
- Anne discourages the plan.
- Peele draws glowing pictures of actor's profession.
- Will is all on fire for London in spite of Anne.
- Tells Anne he's tired of being nagged.
- Makes Peele promise to take him to London.
- His mother comes for him and is aghast at the news, but finally consents to let Will go without his father's knowledge.
- Peele then draws a picture of the actor as vagabond to discourage Will.
- Anne holds out against his going.
- Will tells how, though he has not been poaching, he has been warned by Sir Thomas Lucy to clear out.
- His mother sees that he must go.
- Will makes a compact with Peele.
- Promises Anne rare gifts and kissing his mother goes.
The scenario drawn up, the next step is to develop the plot. The plot of a one-act play, to be effective, must be extraordinarily compact. The accepted laws of plot construction for all artistic narratives are the same. The climax must be carefully prepared for, as in Synge's Riders to the Sea, and the various devices used for heightening the suspense should be discovered and applied.
Characterization is more difficult for the tyro to manage than plot. Consistency of characterization is attained through discovering in the beginning a motive that will sufficiently account for the part taken by the character by means of speech and action, and through constantly testing the characterization by this motive. Such consistency of characterization is illustrated to perfection in Tarkington's Beauty and the Jacobin. The writer of the one-act play does not use many characters. "Examination of several hundred one-act plays has revealed that the average number of characters to a play is between three and four."[19]
Facility in writing dialogue is gained like facility in plot construction and in characterization only by the patient study of the work of experienced and successful playwrights. Dialogue that is witty, charming, ironical, or graceful is of dramatic value only as it is in character.
A little experience on the stage is a great help. Such experience teaches the value of skillfully planned exits and entrances for characters; helps the beginner to distinguish between action that should be related and action that should be seen; shows him how a scene must be devised to occupy the time it takes for a character to appear after he has telephoned that he is coming; and a variety of other practical considerations.
Stage directions are likely to be over-elaborated by the inexperienced. The best stage directions are those that deal only with matters of setting, lighting and essential pantomime or action. They should not, in general, be used for characterization.