Dramatic Question

The Dramatic Question is a question that the play raises in the minds of the audience and begs to be answered, such as "What will happen?" "Who will win?" "Will Romeo and Juliet get together?" "Will Hamlet avenge his father's death?"; when the major dramatic question is answered the play is typically over.

A Dramatic Question is something that, ideally, a playwright wants to instill in an audience member throughout the play, but also in each individual moment. If you can get an audience member asking "What will happen?" that means you've got them right where you want them - they're engaged, and probably on the edge of their seat. That doesn't mean every play has to be a nail-biter, but every play should keep the audience wondering how things will turn out.

Surprising But Inevitable
One of the challenges, of course, of having an audience that's wondering what will happen next, is sometimes they can be right. The infamous "I Totally Saw That Coming" syndrome. It's pandemic. But, as a playwright, you do have one advantage over any given audience member:

Audiences can only see the play forwards.

They look at a moment and can see an infinite number of possibilities of what could happen. This makes them ask "What will happen next?" You, however, know that there's only one way that everything can work out, because you happened to have written the play. Hamlet has ended the same way for 400 years.

The old adage is that a play's ending should be "surprising, but inevitable." The "surprising" part you can accomplish by the characters discovering information throughout the course of the play, which also keeps the audience wondering. This information doesn't have to be life-shattering (except maybe at the end), but it does keep everyone on their toes. The "inevitable" part you can accomplish by making sure that all of your moments connect to each other. Each one is motivated, and driven by Actions.