Playwriting for Children’s Theater
Dramatic Dialogue
A course by Piers Torday , Children's Author and Playwright
About the video: Dramatic Dialogue
Overview
“Unless you are creating a purely physical piece of theatre, or a sung-through musical, your characters will live through their words and actions. In this lesson, we’ll look at how to write dialogue that creates drama.”
In this video lesson Piers Torday addresses the topic: Dramatic Dialogue, 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
“Dramatic Dialogue In this lesson, we'll look at dramatic dialogue. The clue is in the description. Your dialogue has to earn its place in your theatre show, every word. Otherwise, why is it there? Why are you making us listen to it? It's true that in a novel of many thousands of words, not every single exchange needs to be spellbinding, compelling, or hilarious, although it helps when most are, but on stage in a play of 10,000 to 15,000 words, every word needs to count. Is it moving the story on? Are we learning more about the character? Is it in conflict with their actions? Does it reveal ...”
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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- Level: Beginner
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