Day 4

5th July 2019

Activities: 

1. We began the day with a conversation on exposition. We discussed how time and space can be understood in the context of exposition, with time being understood as when information is released in the course of a play, and space being understood as the different physical dislocations in the course of a play. 
2. We noted how some plays approach the release of information, or storytelling, in a very direct manner; for example, in parts of India, the tradition of theatre is closely linked with the sutradhar, who appears at the beginning of the play and tells the audience what to expect. Other plays, though, do not offer information in this way and instead, scatter it in a piecemeal way through play, and the story becomes clearer as the play progresses. 
3. Then, we were given a writing assignment. We were told to craft the event flows (what happens in a play, scene by scene) for two ways of telling the same story; in one, the exposition is done right at the beginning and the audience knows what to expect, and in the other, the exposition unfolds as the play continues. We were given the premise of Oedipus’ story, and asked to begin from when the prophecy that Oedipus would commit two crimes (kill his father and marry his mother) is conveyed to his parents. 
4. After writing our event flows, we took a moment to discuss each of our ideas and the way in which we had chosen to disseminate information through the play. We noted the importance of giving each scene a sense of being a part of something larger, and a sense of direction and clear stakes. With the first way of telling a story (directly), we observed different ways of still managing to engage the audience, despite them knowing what to expect from the play. 
5. After this, we read a draft of Usha’s play and took the rest of the class to discuss what it was doing well, what it could do better, and offered constructive feedback on how to take it further. 

Questions considered:

1. What is exposition? How have playwrights from different traditions treated exposition in their works? 
2. What are the ways in which one can distribute information across a play? How does choosing the pace of information distribution affect a play’s structure? 
3. What is the focus of your play and how are you making that clear? How do you represent the driving force of the play in each scene without becoming repetitive?