Emotional Plots

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > SHAPE > DIAGRAM > INCITING > PLOT > EMOTIONAL

'When I start writing the play -- because I don't write from an outline -- is when I have an idea where the play is going to arc to or land on . . .. With THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG I wanted a woman to turn to a man and say 'I love you like I've never loved anybody,' a woman who's never said this before. That's not in the play, but it's where the play's going. In THE HEIDI CHRONICLES, I wanted this woman to get up at a woman's meeting and say 'I've never been so unhappy in my life.' Then I know that in fact it's a play, that it's starting somewhere and going somewhere.'

-- Wendy Wasserstein

Most playwrights assemble characters who have a shared -- and emotionally complicated -- past. And this is usually a past that has been simmering beneath the surface of their relationships for some time. The Inciting Incident of the Suspense Plot provides the catalyst for this simmering past to finally come to light.

Emotional Plots deal with the Emotional Consequences of events -- usually the events forming the basis of the Suspense Plot. While they take up most of the play, they're simple and uncomplicated to describe . . .

• Can Maggie get Brick to love her again?
  in Tennessee Williams' CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF

• Can the three sisters learn to be supportive friends?
  in Beth Henley's CRIMES OF THE HEART

• Why is there such emotional friction between the Sergeant and his troops?
  in Charles Fuller's A SOLDIER'S PLAY

• What was the real basis for the emotional relationship between the French diplomat and the Chinese Opera performer?
  in David Henry Hwang's M. BUTTERFLY