Setting & Time Page

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > FORMAT > PRELIMINARY PAGES > SETTING & TIME PAGE >

'. . . I was working on a more filmic approach to my playwriting. BALLAD OF YACHIYO was always intended to be a play, but I wanted to use some cinematic qualities -- I knew from the beginning that it was a play with a lot of filmic elements, like fades. I move freely from one location to another and there are many locations in the script. There are moments that dissolve into other moments, and these juxtapositions add to the sense of connection in the play.'

-- Philip Kan Gotanda

Don't stay up nights pondering the intricacies of your play's setting. Lose sleep over a very general sense of where the play is happening and how to capture the essence of that in a fairly brief description. But don't sweat the details because Scene Designers and Directors won't pay much attention to a playwright's overly detailed set description.

Give us just enough information to know where we are and to create our own rough picture of what this might look like. Then let the Designers do what they're paid to do. Trust them. You'll like it.

Things Literary Managers, Directors, and Designers don't need to know if you want a realistic setting . . .

Exactly where the doors are. And the windows, And the lamps.
Where that old standby, the Couch is. Or the chairs. Or that other standby, the Dining Table.
It's more than enough to say . . .

	Nikki and Stu's family room. They tore a page out of 
	House Beautiful years ago.

Setting & Time Page Example

But if the setting for your play is not realistic, we need to know how you imagine this abstract space and the atmosphere it should create . . .

Non-realistic Setting Description

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