Day 15

30th May, 2019

Activities:

1. We began the day with a discussion on premises. We spoke about what distinguishes a play’s premise from its synopsis; and then, we were told to build a story around the following situation: a daughter kills her mother. At the end of this exercise, we were asked to come up with a premise for the story. The story followed the life of a young girl in love with her father, who manipulates her to kill her mother, and the guilt the girl feels in this heinous act’s aftermath. We were told to structure our premise like “x leads to y,” came up with the following possible premises: jealousy leads to destruction and revenge lead to guilt.
2. Then, we were split into groups and asked to choose one premise from a series of pre-written options like “dishonesty leads to exposure,” and “ruthless ambition leads to destruction.” Our assignment was to build a story around that premise and ensure that we maintain the logic of “x leads to y.” We discussed our stories in groups and observed the ways in which both groups adhered to and deviated from their chosen premise.
3. Finally, we were asked to take some time to come up with premises for our own plays, which is an activity that we had done at the beginning of the term as well. Each of us discussed our premises with the group and spoke about readings, questions, and research that would help us refine this premise and develop it further; we also discussed how our premises had changed over this period of time.

Questions considered:

1. What is a premise? How can a robust premise help the writing process? How do you develop a premise into a storyline?

And with that, we have reached the end of our first term! Participants now break for the month of June, over which they will continue reading and researching for their plays. They will develop first drafts of their script and come back in July, ready for another month of classes, this time with a focus on playwriting.