Continuous Time Examples

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > TIME > CONTINUOUS EXAMPLES

'. . . wherever there is a present moment, the past is also present, although it's usually invisible. That's what draws me to theatre -- the ability to put different times on stage and see how they collide or how they resonate with one another -- how the past tells a story within a present story.'

-- Naomi Wallace

• 'NIGHT, MOTHER: No Intermission

  Marsha Norman's play is the ultimate Continuous Time affair. She has no Intermission. And a number of clocks are incorporated into the Setting, all running and visible to us, and all showing about 8:10 p.m. as the curtain goes up on the Point of Attack -- roughly the time the play will actually start for most evening performances. All of these clocks run in real time, heightening the play's realistic Style.

• CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF: Intermissions with Replay

  Tennessee Williams' classic is the great example of halting the story's clock during intermission. It freezes at the Curtain Line of Act I and again at the end of Act II of this 3-act play. But it's then reset back about 10 seconds at the Point of Attack of Act II and Act III, thus replaying the last moments of the previous Act. This is done by having the Curtain Line of the prior act become the first line of the next act.

  It's also a fine exception to the Rule that the secondary Point of Attack of Act II needs to begin at a lower level of tension than what held us at the Curtain Line of Act I.

• THAT CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON: Intermission with Frozen Time

  Jason Miller does it straight in this play about lost dreams and the 20-year reunion of a high school basketball team. Time freezes at the Curtain Line, stays that way through the Intermission, and starts running again with the Point of Attack of Act II. It's no accident that this is the way time is structured in basketball games.