Number of Acts & Intermissions

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > LENGTH > ACTS >

'I create places in which to think, without trying to dictate what to think.'

-- Maya Lin

Available Now: Playwriting Seminars 2.0

The revised and expanded e-book edition.

Here's the full Table of Contents and ordering link for the new edition.

Think of the structure of a play as a series of decreasing arcs or movements: the first movement is the longest. Then comes an intermission, followed by the shorter concluding act. In three-act plays, the last two acts tend to be about the same length or the last act is noticeably shorter....

Having a maximum of 3 acts is another one of those Rules in this business that's made to be broken. At the other end of the scale is that odd beast . . .