Using A Narrator

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > SHAPE > DIAGRAM > PT. OF ATTACK > EXPOSITION > NARRATORS >

'. . . if one goes by that criterion alone -- that the more people understand it the better -- then one can only reduce the language that you speak in the theatre to the language, for example, of a television series which does take the most reduced language to speak to people: the contemporary shorthand.'

-- Joseph Chaikin

Narrators are handy short-cuts for Exposition. And they're great storytelling devices. In contemporary plays, they're nearly always a central character, not the chatty maids of yesteryear. But when they open the play with a Monologue to the audience, they usually serve the same function. But here's the trick . . .

Weave all that Exposition into the personal concerns of your Narrator. That means Narrators need to have a real stake in the consequences of the events in the story. Contemporary playwrights hardly ever use impartial and uninvolved observers for this job.

And when Narrators serve this technical function, they're often put in service as Authorial Spokespersons to clarify thematic issues for us. That usually happens toward the end of the play. In the meantime, they dish out the Exposition at important Time Jumps in the play particularly at either side of intermissions.

A rule of sorts: If a Narrator opens the play -- or at least shows up within the first several scenes -- audiences will expect these folks to keep them company on the rest of the journey. The usual places for them to do their thing . . .

Point of Attack of Act I
Openings or endings of short Formal Scenes
Last speech including the Curtain Line of Act I [& Act II, if a 3-act play]
First speech in Act II [& Act III, if a 3-act play]
End of the Resolution

Narrators usually exist with the audience in the present. And they're telling us a story they've already been through. So when they're in the story, they're in the past and when they're talking to us, they pop into the present. Fortunately, audiences don't see this as some sort of psychic phenomenon.

A Few Good Narrators

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