COURSE NUMBER: Theatre 171

COURSE TITLE: Playwriting

COURSE DESCRIPTION: The principles of dramatic composition taught

through practice. Development of plots and
character; the writing of a play scenario and a one-
act play.

PREREQUESITE: Theatre 170 and 12 units of English and/or Filipino

(for Theatre Majors); COI (for non-Theatre majors)

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the end of the semester, the students should

have:
 understood and analyzed a sampling of
dramatic texts that highlight key techniques
and writing styles from different genres
which demonstrate exemplary playwriting;
 applied a rigorous preparation method
before embarking on the main writing
process of their scripts;
 evaluated and criticized the work of their
peers to gain additional insight in audience
appreciation and gauge the effectivity of
their own craft and technique;
 collaborated with actors and directors to
stage a reading of their finished one-act
plays.

ASSESSMENT: There are four major requirements in this course,

which sums up to a 100%. The breakdown of the
requirements is the following:
 40% FINAL SCRIPT. The culmination of all
classroom work is a final draft of the students’
script. It will be submitted on the agreed upon
deadline and must display the student-playwright’s
growth, and must be a draft ready for performance.

30% STAGED READING. The final output of the

course will be a “festival” of new works to be
performed as a staged reading that is open to the
public. Preparations for this showcase will be
discussed further in class.

20% PLAYWRITING JOURNAL. During the

writing process, the student must track their
progress through a journal (or a “morgue”) to be
submitted at every end of a module in the
playwriting workshop. Each student must prepare a
notebook as their official journal.

10% QUIZZES. During the first six weeks of the

course, exemplary plays will be assigned as
required readings. To assess the comprehension and
analysis of the students, regular quizzes will be
given.

COURSE OUTLINE

The course will take on two methods of play-crafting which the student must
balance at once: 1) a widening of literary and dramatic appreciation through
reading key texts of different genres demonstrating exemplary playwriting
techniques, and 2) a 7-step preparation/method of a playwright’s journey in
crafting their one-act play. A week will have the following structure:

Day 1 - Literary appreciation

Day 2 - A step in the 7-step method.

Week 1: THE COMEDY

Anton Chekhov’s “The Boor”
Dingdong Novenario’s “Kafatiran”
 STEP 1: AWAKENING THE PLAYWRIGHT’S
MIND. Playwriting as a craft is different
from other forms of writing (such as fiction,
journalism, criticism, poetry, etc.) and as such,
requires its unique mode of thinking and creativity.
Therefore, a playwright must be a voracious
consumer of literary and cultural texts, especially
those belonging to the genre of drama, and must
have a sensibility and consciousness that is inspired
by influences, informed by the breadth and
limitation of the medium, and aware of its place in
the living history of the art.

__________________________________________________________________

Week 2: THE TRAGEDY

August Strindberg’s “Countess Julie”
Rolando S. Tinio’s “Ang Mga Kahon”

STEP 2: RESPONDING TO AN URGENT NEED.

Theater also differentiates itself from other artistic
mediums in terms of its intense immediacy – the
ability of the live performance to respond to,
meditate on, and problematize both the private and
public crises of an individual consciousness and the
world it lives in. Therefore, a playwright must
ensure that their work is an act of taking up the
challenges set by their own biography, political
context, aesthetic interests, and/or other factors that
spark the need to craft a play immediately.

__________________________________________________________________

Week 3: THE ABSURD

Eugene Ionesco’s “The Bald Soprano”
Joshua Lim So’s “Joe Cool: Aplikante”
 STEP 3: FORMULATING THE “WHAT IF.”
Dramatic works, whether traditional or
experimental, fall within the form of the narrative,
and all narratives begin with a point of change – a
situation where normalcy is broken, and balance
turns into imbalance, therefore propelling
characters into adventures of restoring that
normalcy and setting the balance aright. This
starting point is the “What If,” an exploratory
thought, idea, or image that gives birth to crisis and
conflict, a trip away from the old path in order to
pave an untrodden road towards home, or the
promise of home.

__________________________________________________________________

Week 4: THE PRIVATE

Harold Pinter’s “The Lover”
Layeta Bucoy’s “Ellas Inocentes”

STEP 4: BUILDING THE “MORGUE.”

Writing as a craft can be defined as the process of
codifying thoughts gathered from the incoherence of
the human mind, made linear, coherent, and whole.
Before embarking on this codification process, a
playwright should be allowed to indulge in the
playground of the incoherent: impulses, images,
influences, snapshots, patterns, word salads,
inkblots, dreams, etc. At this point, the playwright
must keep a journal – a “morgue” – of their
playwriting journey to expose the creative voice
from within that has long been fettered by the
demands of society and the sanctions of the
superego. In so doing, the playwright can be guided
by their own private stirrings towards the path of
originality – the only measure by which one can
ensure that one has indeed contributed to the living
history of drama.
__________________________________________________________________

WEEK 5: THE PUBLIC

Edward Albee’s “The Zoo Story”
Rae Red’s “Kawala”

STEP 5: OUTLINING THE STRUCTURE. From

the jungle of the inchoate, now the playwright
struggles to break a clearing and impose order and
coherence, motivated by the need to turn their ideas
into the beneficial, communicative act of drama-
making. The playwright zeroes-in on their chosen
central “problem” or “debate,” investigates it,
scrutinizes its complexities to arrive at a purposeful
beginning, middle, and end. If the morgue is a
scattered map of a journey, the outline is a step-by-
step itinerary.

__________________________________________________________________

WEEK 6: THE EXPERIMENTAL

Sarah Kane’s “4.48 Psychosis”
Paul Dumol and Gil Quito’s “Ang Puting
Timamanukin”

STEP 6: BUILDING CHARACTERS. A play

can depict the existence of human beings, animals,
non-living things, and ideas – but for drama to
occur, all these must be transformed into persons,
with their own physical, psychological,
sociological, and linguistic qualities consistent with
the world of the play. The Greek philosopher
Aristotle identifies mimesis as the source of
pleasure in art, and the mimesis of the human is the
business of the theatre – a task which begins with
the playwright’s struggle to capture humanity on
paper.
__________________________________________________________________

WEEKS 7-13: STEP 7: THE WRITING PROPER. Finally, the

playwright faces their greatest fear: the blank page.
Write – read – re-write – re-read – edit – edit –
edit. There are no shortcuts to the grueling process
of playwriting. But the playwright can choose to not
be alone; they can strengthen their material by
opening their ears to criticism and sharing their
own critique of other’s works-in-progress, to
sharpen their sensibility and overhear their own
playwriting philosophies.

CRITIQUING AND WRITING WORKSHOPS

SUBMISSION OF FINAL DRAFTS

__________________________________________________________________

WEEKS 14-15: CULMINATING ACTIVITY: THE FESTIVAL OF

STAGED READINGS OF CHOSEN WORKS
(mechanics and logistics to be planned in class)

Panelists may be invited to judge the best work,

which may get a perfect grade.

COURSE LEADER: Guelan V. Luarca

Lecturer
Department of Speech Communication
and Theatre Arts
guelan.luarca@gmail.com

COURSE SCHEDULE: WF 1:00-2:30 pm

PH 3213-3215

CONSULTATION: Friday
UP Diliman Information Office
2/F Villamor Hall, Osmeña Drive
UP Diliman, Quezon City
NOTE: Please e-mail me 2 days before the desired
consultation, and wait for me to confirm.