Using a 'Teaser' Point of Attack

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'I've written plays where I didn't want my head to get in the way of my 'point.' But the only way to battle that sort of irony is to risk going too far. . . . That's the only shocking thing left -- it's not nudity, it's not language -- the only shocking thing left, frankly, is sentiment, to use our talents to tell the stories that we feel.'

-- Steven Dietz

A 'Teaser' or false Point of Attack can keep the audience's interest while you gradually draw them into the background of the conflict that will eventually erupt.

This kind of Point of Attack usually involves one of these techniques . . .

• Borrowing a small portion of the Climax.
  This can even be the actual moment of the play's Climax.

• Excerpting a short section having considerable tension.
  This is often drawn from the last scene of Act I.

These borrowed scenes or images are "false" Points of Attack. They're a trick to hold the audience's attention from the moment of the "true" Point of Attack through a more leisurely series of flash-backs sketching in the years or days prior to the conflict shown in the false Point of Attack.

• Having a Narrator directly address the audience.
  The Narrator hints at the conflict to come.

Plays using any form of a "Teaser" Point of Attack nearly always have a central character who speaks directly to the audience at intervals throughout the play, functioning as the story's Narrator.