One-Character Plays

THE PLAYWRITING SEMINARS > STRUCTURE > CHARACTERS > ONE-CHARACTER >

'If some of the people in your family have been erased -- for religious reasons or for what they have done -- that means that part of yourself has been erased. . . . I was trying to restore [my great-uncle] in the book of life, and, ironically, the only way I could do that was to invent a life for him, a lie of a life, but it's the only life I can give back to this man.'

-- Sebastian Barry

These plays with only one Character -- and one performer -- are about as minimalist as you can get and still have a play when all the dust settles. But be warned: they're probably the most difficult things to write . . .

The technical problem you face when you only have one character is how to find a source for the Conflict that drives plays with two or more characters forward.

Only try this kind of thing if you love writing Monologues.

These plays are the ultimate monologue. But instead of structuring a typical monologue running anywhere from 10 lines to a page, you'll be writing 90 pages of one character talking. So keep in mind the old Zen question, 'What's the sound of one hand clapping?' Well, the sound of one character talking for all those pages can become no sound at all as far as your audience is concerned . . . If you haven't found that source of conflict.

Some solutions contemporary playwrights use when they venture into this bramble . . .

Select A Celebrity as the Character
If the Character is famous enough, that fame can substitute for a lot of Conflict. It helps if your celebrity has gone through some tough times -- that's a typical source of the very minimal Suspense Plot these plays generally use. It's tough to create one of these in a way that will hold an audience if your celebrity led a fine life from the moment they were born with nothing but love and happiness and died in bed with no regrets at 105.
And it helps even more if your celebrity was a writer who kept journals or wrote lots of letters in the days before disposable Email. These sources can then become the basis for your dialogue -- as was done well in LUCIFER'S CHILD, the One-Character play about the author of OUT OF AFRICA, Isak Dinesen.
Some other celebrities who've ended up in One-Character Plays . . .
- Paul Robeson
- Edith Piaf
- Gertrude Stein
- Isadora Duncan
- Mark Twain
- Virginia Woolf
Use An Invisible Second Character
These invisible creatures actually exist and are used by the playwright as a source of conflict with the Character, but we never see them on stage. The audience accepts that they are really there, but just out of sight off stage. And the only way we 'hear' them is when what they have said is interpreted for us by the Character:
```
				CHARACTER
			(Looking off stage)
	What do you mean, "I can't?"
			(Pause, listening)
	Well, a fat lot you know about it.
```
Give Your Character Self-Induced Imaginary Characters
These are fantasies created out of the wanderings of the deranged -- or at least slightly disturbed -- imagination of your Character. The audience knows that these imaginary folks don't really exist now. They're a bit like ghosts from the past haunting the Character. As with Invisible Characters, we know what these ghostly types are saying through what your Character says.

Most One-Character plays are written with a particular performer in mind, usually a performer the playwright knows. And often a playwright will involve the performer in creating the play. So if you don't know a very good performer who looks a bit like your Character, put off this project until you've met a few. Or you know a Director who knows one.

This sort of play usually doesn't float to the top of new play Competitions. And the style is not high on the list of what typical Literary Managers are looking for. That makes the One-Character Play a difficult sell until you've already gotten substantial recognition as a playwright.

Or unless you're lucky enough to be the next-door neighbor of a great performer who regularly appears on the regional theatre circuit -- And one who's willing to carry your script around in a back pocket.

But if you're really daring and you're also a performer -- or would like to be one -- you can combine writing and acting in . . .

Solo Performance

A Legal Note: If you're planning on basing a One-Character Play on a published biography of your Character, you'll need to get the rights to do this. And get those rights before you start writing the play. What you're really doing in this case is an Adaptation of someone else's work. You may be able to avoid the rights issue -- but don't count on it -- if you create nearly everything [except the character's name and the basic facts of his or her life] from your own fertile imagination. Or if you pick a widely known public figure for your Character who's been written about in newspapers, magazines, and books -- and no single published source is the primary basis for your play. As with anything involving rights, the only safe approach is to review the issue with a lawyer who knows this business before you put words on paper.

RETURN TO: | Structure | Seminar Homepage |