High Point of Act I

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > SHAPE > DIAGRAM > HIGH POINT >

'It's been less crucial for playwrights to fulfill audience expectations. I don't mean Broadway, where there's often an economic downside if you don't fulfill rules, and where people usually want to see things that reassure them. But those who tinker off Broadway are freer of that. And we were off-off Hollywood! With a low budget, we could make the movie exactly as we wanted.'

-- Neil LaBute

The Act I High Point stops well short of becoming a Climax [You've got to save that for the end of Act II]. But it is usually the High Point of tension in Act I -- unless you've used a Teaser Point of Attack.

Think of this High Point as something that could have developed into a Climax under slightly different circumstances. But you can't let it for the most boring of technical reasons -- you're only at the end of Act I. And no matter what your characters want to do, you're face-to-face with the Hamlet Question. You've still got to write an Act II, if you're going to make this a full-length play.

So the High Point provides tension and revelations for the audience, but not enough to resolve the Suspense Plot -- That's still needed to keep driving the play forward in the next Act.

Some Act I High Points in recent plays . . .

• Babe reveals how she tried to kill her husband
  In Beth Henley's CRIMES OF THE HEART

• The Diplomat attempts to seduce Song roughly
  In David Henry Hwang's M. BUTTERFLY

• Loomis is terror-stricken by a vision
  In August Wilson's JOE TURNER'S COME AND GONE

• Stanley's wife offers to get him all the women he wants
  In Pam Gems' STANLEY