Action

“Suit the action to the word, the word to the action…” – Hamlet, III.ii.

“''I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged.''” – Peter Brook, The Empty Space

Action is what a Character wants.

Painters use paint – Actors use action. As a playwright, your medium is not the words on your page, but the actors’ bodies on the stage your play will eventually inhabit. By giving these bodies something to want in your script – something to move towards, something to crave, something to strive after with every fiber of their being – you will create a compelling and resonant play, sure to win plenty of awards.

Plays are made up of Actions – characters wanting something from other characters onstage, and trying various ways to get what they want. Faced with a Problem, characters pursue Actions to try to solve it. They run up against Obstacles, which generates Conflict, which is one of the most entertaining things to see in theater. An Action has individual Tactics, which are specific physical ways of pursuing their goal. Each Action also has Stakes, which keep the character working towards their ultimate goal. Somehow, they will find some kind of Resolution: either getting what they want, failing to get what they want, or deciding they want something else. A character’s progression from the beginning of their Action to the Resolution is called the Journey of the Play.

Character’s Actions occur in the present tense, in front of a live audience, which is unique to drama. In a ten-minute play, there’s usually only enough time for the pursuit of a single Action for the protagonist, which is why most ten-minute plays are usually only one Scene. Whatever problem you want your characters to encounter, it must be significant enough for someone to try to solve it, continuously, for roughly ten minutes.

The Advantage of Actions for a Playwright
On sculptures, the tag with the title will also tell you what the piece is made of. "Symphony in Chrome" - Chrome Plates, PVC pipe, super glue. That sort of thing. Well, beneath every script, should be the word "Action." As a playwright, a sculptor of events, Action is your main material.

Determining a play’s Action is vital to the drafting process, because it gives each playwright a way to double-check what is worth keeping in the play, and what is worth editing out. Anything a character does that is not in pursuit of their Action is worth removing, while anything a character does while pursuing their Action can then be tightened up, polished, and adjusted.

Giving your play a solid structure using Actions and Conflict will also make your play easy to translate onto the stage. The director will be able to track your story better, and the actors will have a more solid sense of what happens in each scene.

A solid structure of Action and Conflict also means that the judges reading your 10-minute plays can get caught up in the story.

Examples of Actions
Oedipus Rex: Faced with a Plague in Thebes until the man who murdered the old king is found, Oedipus, the Protagonist, tries to find the murderer, and discovers he was the murderer.

ACTION: Oedipus tries to find the murderer.

The Miracle Worker: Faced with a deaf-mute who has been spoiled by her parents, Annie Sullivan, the Protagonist, tries to teach her to communicate, and discovers a lifetime friendship.

ACTION: Annie tries to teach Helen to communicate.

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: Faced with losing a galactic civil war against an evil Empire, Luke Skywalker, the Protagonist, tries to defeat the Emperor, and discovers he needs his father’s help.

ACTION: Luke tries to defeat the Emporer.

How to Write an Action
Unless it comes to you naturally, you may not want to start your process by thinking of an Action. Write just off of pure interest, and see what comes to you - use whatever you need as inspiration. Tarell Alvin McCraney, a playwright and freind of McCarter, once said that his plays were just all the cool things he could think of strung together (this is paraphrasing, but see for yourself). So, to begin with, you may have sketches of interesting moments, things you REALLY want to happen, and so on. Once you've got that, then go back, and ask yourself what it looks like each of your characters wants. Then, in a second draft, write what happens when they pursue those wants. String the moments together with Action. That’s the draft you want to turn in.

Think of all the different ways you can get a specific thing. If I want your binder, I can beg you, bribe you, threaten you, and so on. You’ve just brainstormed some tactics you can use! Go ahead and see what happens if a character uses one of those tactics. What happens next?

One way to determine the Action of your play is to try filling out an Action Statement.

Troubleshooting
If one or more of your characters spends their time being acted on rather than acting, you have an inactive character - a character either without an Action, or one that isn't being pursued as completely as it could be.

- First, identify what they want from another character onstage (or a character in their heads/the audience, if it is a monologue). Is the Action you've written different from the Action in your head? Decide on an Action for them.

- What are the different ways your character can accomplish that goal you've given them? Try giving them new and different Tactics.

- If that doesn’t work, try adjusting the Stakes so that they’re higher – even if this means throwing in a Ticking Clock that doesn’t make sense. If that still doesn’t work, go back to the Problem and see if the character is really facing it in a way that makes sense.

Disambiguation
Action is also referred to as “the Dramatic Action,” “the Objective,” “the Intention,” “the Spine,” “the Clurman [for American director Harold Clurman],” along with many other names. Most acting techniques have a variation on the idea of Action, and often have their own names for it. In each case, however, it boils down to What The Character Wants.