Subtext Marked for Editing

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > CONTENT > SUBTEXT > EXAMPLE > DEMO 1-A > DEMO 1-B

'The hardest thing for me as a playwright in the early days was to figure out how to be a poet and a writer for theatre at the same time -- to write in a way that involved an interrogation of language, and also was germane to what was going on in the world. If art's not contemporary, then it's geezer theatre; it's embalmed from the start.'

-- Mac Wellman

Here's the scene with all the Spoken Subtext marked for Editing. The real theatrical dialogue is visible now -- and the final version with Subtext where it belongs is in the next link . . .

Spoken Subtext is marked by the blue links to the final version of the scene:

			
				SCENE 1

				(The two of them in the Family
				Room. 2:00 a.m. and the smoke
				still curls in the aftermath of a 
				party that's gotten Nikki very
				upset.)

				NIKKI
	So? What've you got to say for yourself after this
	horror of an evening. You always manage to get us 
	into things with people I hate.

				STU
	What? Why are you landing on me for this? I don't know
	why you don't get along with any of my friends. They're 
	just not people you like. Nobody's people you like.

				NIKKI
	You're so amazingly unimaginative. Is that all you 
	can say? You just don't understand anything about 
	me. After this, I don't know what's keeping us together.

				STU
	You know that's not true, Nik . . . I love you more than
	I can say.

				NIKKI
	Don't call me that name, Nik. I hate you when you do
	that. How can you be so stupid to keep calling me that?

				STU
	I don't know why you're so upset. It's just a nickname.

				NIKKI
			(Exploding)
	You make me sound like a man! Is that what you want?

			(Blackout.)

And The Scene With Subtext Where It Belongs

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