Playwriting for Children’s Theater
Characters: The Art of Change
A course by Piers Torday , Children's Author and Playwright
About the video: Characters: The Art of Change
Overview
“In theatre, perhaps more than any other storytelling art form, the characters are the plot. In this lesson, I will discuss how to create compelling characters and how to map out their story.”
In this video lesson Piers Torday addresses the topic: Characters: The Art of Change, which is part of the Domestika online course: Playwriting for Children’s Theater. Bring your ideas to life on stage by learning how to write plays for children and families, from the initial idea to opening night.
Partial transcription of the video
“Characters: The Art of Change Your show may have the most extravagant set and costumes, the most unforgettable music, and the very latest theatrical special effects, but unless we believe in and care about the characters in the story, it will all have been for nothing. In a sense, characters are your plot. How they react to events, the choices they make or don't, and whether they do what they say they will do or not is the next layer of dramatic tension, which makes an evening in the theatre compelling and revealing or weak and uninteresting, and that's a real challenge. As Stephen Jeffreys...”
This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.
Course summary for: Playwriting for Children’s Theater
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Category
Writing -
Areas
Children's Literature, Communication, Creative Writing, Fiction Writing, Script
Piers Torday
A course by Piers Torday
Piers Torday is an author, playwright, and educator from Northumberland, England. As a children’s author, he is dedicated to harnessing the power of imagination through creative writing. The art of writing has always been present in Piers' life: He wrote his first cartoon at age seven, which was about a superhero called Super Sid, and won a competition in a local newspaper. His father, the late Paul Torday, is the author of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, which was later adapted into a film.
For Piers, writing children’s novels is a way to engage young readers, inspire them to ask big questions, and shape the minds of tomorrow. His most notable work includes The Lost Magician, The Frozen Sea, The Last Wild Trilogy, and There May Be a Castle. Piers also received the Guardian Award for Children’s Fiction in 2014. In a review for the trilogy, The Times states that Piers is “the new master of books for children.”
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- 1,203 students
- 16 lessons (2h 44m)
- 24 additional resources (4 files)
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- Available on the app
- Audio: English
- English · Spanish · Portuguese · German · French · Italian · Polish · Dutch
- Level: Beginner
- Unlimited access forever
