Devising

Read the information and complete the practical tasks

Structure
Once you’ve established the content of your work and how you might stage it in the
performance space you need to consider its structure. The order of the scenes will
have a big effect on the journey on which you take the audience. If your piece is non-
naturalistic you may want to repeat scenes or moments through the piece and slowly
reveal their significance to the audience as the piece unfolds. This is known as a motif

You could choose to start at the beginning of the story and build in tension towards a
climax at the end of the piece. When your work runs in chronological order like this, it
is called a linear structure. If your work is inspired by Stanislavski and you want it to
feel naturalistic and have an emotional impact on the audience, you should use a linear
structure.

If you decided to begin by presenting the outcome of the story first and then move
back in time to how it all began, this would be a non- linear structure. It doesn’t run in
a chronological time sequence but moves about in time. This builds tension in another
way. Revealing events and information bit by bit for the audience and providing clues
to what happened keeps them engaged. The work is like a jigsaw puzzle for the
audience which finally makes sense when all the pieces are in place. Changing the
structure can have a profound effect upon the shape and impact of your drama.

LINEAR STRUCTURE -
 A typical dramatic structure is linear, with events occurring chronologically. This
might include:

 exposition - introduces background events and characters

 rising action - a series of events that create suspense in the narrative
 climax - the part of the story where the suspense reaches its highest part
 falling action - the main conflict starts to resolve
 resolution - the conclusion of the story where questions are answered and loose
ends are tied up

NON LINEAR STRUCTURE

This is where the narrative doesn’t run in a straight line but moves about in time. It’s
non-chronological. The play, Betrayal by Harold Pinter is an excellent example of this.
The acclaimed drama about a love affair and the intricate nature of deceit is told in
reverse time from its poignant ending to its thrilling first kiss.

Consider using a non-linear structure if:

 there’s more than one narrative (storyline) in your piece

 you’re creating Theatre in education work
 you’re creating work in the style of Brecht, Artaud or any other non-naturalistic
theatre practitioner
 you want to create dramatic irony (where the audience know the outcome but the
characters do not)
 you want to keep the audience guessing or thinking about a message throughout
 you are using a range of styles in your work

Trying things out

A good way to experiment with the structure of your work is to write each scene and a
brief outline of its content on some cards.

Get yourself some post it notes or some cut up bits of paper.

Write the name of each main character on a separate post it

Then write any other important things about each character on other post its.

Spread the post it notes out in front of you and rearrange them until you find a
sequence that you feel creates an exciting and interesting dramatic journey through
each character’s story.

Play around with the order in which things happen.

Which character do we meet first?

Where is our first scene set?

Are we in present day?

Do we have a flashback?

What would happen if you reversed the order of the post it notes?

Could you start at the end of your story?

Try things out practically to see how changing the structure changes the dramatic
impact of your work. Feedback is very important at this level. You could give your
group your post it notes and get them to put them in their own order. How similar are
your structures?

You could try filming your work and watching it to analyse the effect that structural
changes have on it.

Narrative and plot

Your devised work may have one clear storyline, or narrative, running throughout. If
there are two or more storylines in your piece, you’ll need to decide how you deal with
these separate stories when structuring your work. You could run each story
consecutively or decide that it’s more interesting to break up each story and
interweave them, cutting from one to the other. This is called a fractured narrative.
TV soaps like Eastenders, Casualty, Hollyoaks etc always use a fractured narrative
where they flit back and forth between locations.

The trick is to leave each story at a point which keeps the audience wanting to know
what happens next. It’s like a jigsaw that the audience have to put the pieces together
for themselves.

Example of how a fractured narrative could work…..

Scene 1

Scene 2

back to
Scene 1

Introduce
Scene 3

Back to
Scene 1

Scene 3

Back to
Scene 2
Introduce

Scene 4

It doesn’t really matter how you split the scenes.

Try breaking your main storyline into chunks. See if you can split it into 4 key
chunks or scenes.
1) Write down on a post it note or piece of paper, what will happen in each
chunk and think of a cliffhanger moment or line on which it could pause.

2) Try and follow the flow chart example above and see what happens to
your narrative when you weave your scenes together. Remember you can
put the scenes in any order. Play around with the structure and see which
order works best or makes the most sense.

There are plenty of ways of presenting your storyline. A good piece of Drama
would use a nice variety of the following devices;

Soliloquy Where a character is alone on stage and speaks there inner thoughts
Monologue where a character can speak directly to other characters without
being interrupted or directly to the audience
Duologue Between two characters
Dialogue between several characters
Choral speaking Where everyone says the same lines in unison.
Flashback Showing a scene from the past to learn something about the
character now.
Flashforward To show what could become of the characters if they behave in a
certain way.
Voiceover Using a pre-recorded voice while live action is happening on stage at
the same time
Movement / Mime A non verbal sequence showing action while perhaps music
or voiceover plays.
Montage A collection of images or video clips that can be played to show the
passage of time or aselection of a character’s thought/feelings
Direct Address Characters can break he fourth wall and talk directly to the
audience, asking their opinion or giving important facts

Some stories are very plot driven. This means the story is complex and probably
has a few plot twists, feels like a puzzle and needs the audience to follow every
detail carefully. An Example of a plot driven story might be a murder mystery,
where there are lots of clues to find the murderer. Or Harry Potter or Star Wars,
where the story unfolds bit by bit.

Other stories are more character driven This means that not much action
happens but instead the audience spends time learning about the characters
and forming a strong connection to them.

Both styles of story are valid and can be equally exciting/entertaining to watch .