The information in this article discusses free play scripts for drama students and lots more.
Are you a drama student who wants to perfect the craft and learn more about play scripts in drama? Then you should read this guide to understand more about play scripts. We have also discussed the features of play scripts and how you can write play scripts.
Play scripts bring action and excitement to the screen. With the skills of actors and their performance, we experience real moments when viewing our favourite plays. Whether it is comedy, tragedy, drama, thriller or romance, a good play script with good actors will always excite the audience.
As a student who wants to perform at the best level, the free play scripts for drama students will be beneficial to you.
Before we go into details, let’s talk about play scripts.
What Is a Play Script?
A play script is a story written by playwrights (dramatists) for actors. Play scripts are like the instructions an actor will follow to play a character. The performance of an actor is based on what is written in the script.
The playwrights are responsible for writing these play scripts for actors to perform. The physical scripts given to actors are called manuscripts. They are also called folios by some historians because of their format.
Playwriting began in the 6th century BC in ancient Greek. Some of the famous Greek playwrights then include Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Sophocles, and Euripides. Their works positively influenced modern entertainment and are still admired to this day.
A play script is very essential in theatre production. Without play scripts, actors will find it difficult to perform. But with a play script, they play the perfect character in a drama, tragedy, thriller, comedy, etc.
The importance of play scripts cannot be underestimated in theatre production. It is with a play script that actors perform on stage and behind the scenes.
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Genres of Play Scripts
Generally, play scripts can be written in the following genre.
- Comedy
- Drama
- Tragedy
- Thriller
- Romance
- Musical
- Political
- Physical
These genres are written differently in novels and stories. They concentrate more on dialogue and stage direction. This will enable the actors to know how to play and maintain a character on stage. Every theatre production can always uniquely interpret play scripts. And if they want to, they can make a few changes to highlight selected themes.
Features of Play Scripts
We are still discussing free play scripts for drama students, but we also want to look at the features of play scripts.
Character List
A play features different characters in TV shows and movies. Normally, these characters have their role to play and also interact with other characters in different scenes.
We are all familiar with the introduction of characters in movies and TV shows. This is done to identify each character in a movie or TV show. To avoid confusion, most scripts start with the introduction of characters.
Some scripts feature a description of each character. The characters are given names and this enables the actors to know and understand a character before playing them on screen or stage.
In some cases, play scripts include the name of the actor alongside the character in the play. This is what we will see later during the casting.
Acts Scenes and Setting
Generally, play scripts are divided into various acts.
So what are the different acts of play scripts?
There are two examples of acts of play scripts. For instance, Act One is different from Act Two.
Act one may include introductions of the characters and plot, while Act Two may introduce a problem for characters to deal with. Act Three may feature the best level of the actor’s performance.
There are countless numbers of acts in a play. In a play, most scripts given to actors contain a three-act or five-act structure, while some plays use one act.
There are different scenes within every acts in a play. They are like book chapters that tell the main story. For every new scene, there is a new setting in a different location. These scenes depict the action and situation for that particular purpose, and it is included in the plot.
The playwrights write descriptions for the actors, and the whole team effort ensures that every scene, costume, design and special effect is perfect.
This is something important for drama students and those looking for free play scripts.
Dialogue
Dialogue is the spoken word by actors when playing a character on screen or stage. The spoken words are written in books by playwrights.
Normally, these words are written after the character’s name and often separated by a colon. This allows actors to voice their characters and act accordingly to a scene.
Professional actors only need to rehearse their lines before playing a character on screen.
Stage Directions
With stage directions, actors know exactly what to do and how to act when reading dialogues. Stage direction helps actors with their stage performance. It teaches actors how to speak while playing a particular character. It also helps and directs actors on how to stand or walk.
During rehearsals, stage directions are said aloud to actors. However, one can hardly hear them when actors are performing on stage. The instructions given to the actors are always written in the present tense for easy understanding.
How Can I Write a Play Script?
If you have an idea for a play script and want it to become a dramatic or comedic storyline, we will be discussing how you can do that in a bit.
Writing a perfect play script needs a lot of dedication and planning. Anyone can decide to write a play script, but what is important is planning out the storyline. So how can you write that perfect play script?
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Choose the Type of Story You Want to Tell
Every story is unique with its characters and the audience wants to understand the entire plot. They also want to understand events in the plot and the characters.
To write a perfect storyline, you need to think about the characters first. You also need to consider how you want to tell their story to people.
Will the story of the characters in the plot be interesting to people? Will the characters need to solve any mystery or something else?
Perhaps you can let someone with the right experience write a play script for you. By doing so, you can learn from the work of experts.
Even drama students searching for free play scripts and also want to write a play script can follow this process.
Secondly, you need to go through several difficult situations to achieve excellent results. Learn from the best playwrights, and when you are prepared to write a play script, you will achieve good results.
Brainstorm the Basic Part of Your Narrative Arc
The narrative arc is considered the progression of the play through the beginning, the middle and the end. Generally, the terms for these parts are exposition, rising action, and resolution. The exposition, rising actions, and resolution are the right order for the beginning, middle and end.
Irrespective of the duration of your play or the number of acts you have, an excellent play will develop the narrative arc.
Choose What Needs to be in the Exposition
The exposition provides the basic information needed to follow and understand a specific storyline. Through exposition, the audience can understand when and where a particular story happens. It also describes the main character, the secondary characters, and the antagonist.
Once you describe these characters and also describe the conflicts each character will encounter, the genre of your play script can determine. It will be easy to point out if your play script is comedy, tragedy, thriller, drama, romantic, or political.
Understand the Difference between Story and Plot
Your play consists of the story and the plot. These are the two narratives of your play and the two discrete elements needed to create a perfect play for your audience. English author Edward Morgan Foster defines stories as events happening in plays and the unfolding of events accordingly.
Short Free Play Scripts for Drama Students
The following are selected plays that have received position responses from students and teachers.
Playing the Victim
This is one of the free play scripts for drama students.
It goes like this. On a beautiful day, Sally decides to pay her friend a visit and encounter’s an unfortunate situation. Sally and her friend had some ongoing issues yet to be resolved. Her friend always seems to be in an upsetting situation.
In this very short play, Sally wants to get things working again with her friend or she will have no option but to end her friendship.
My Side of Things
In this short play, Clara and her sister don’t get along pretty much. The two siblings are trying to work things out as sisters. Clara confronts her sister and tries to rebuild their relationship.
Inner Core
This story talks about Shelly. In this story, Shelly often visits a therapist and the results are not what she expected. By the way, this is a Sci-Fi story.
One day, Shelly visited the therapist and talks about how she wanted to be reprogrammed.
Something Else Takes Over
In this short story, a girl named Taliya visits her Aunts and she talks about her temper and how she wishes it can be removed,
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Typical Teen
In this short story, there is a girl named Shadira and she is naturally gifted with abilities. With all her gifts and abilities, Shadira still needs the help of her mother to be the best version of herself.
This is one of the free play scripts for drama students.
The Pit of My Stomach
This story involves a girl named Nina. Nina is a girl that lives with her father and they both lived a gipsy lifestyle. Nina and her father were responsible for several robberies and criminal activities while they travel through cities.
Agree to Disagree
This short story talks about a girl named Harpa. She made a new friend, and the two love hanging out together.
Although there was a problem as Harpa noticed that her friend always agree to whatever she said without opposing her. Harpa wanted her friend to share her opinion whenever they are having a conversation.
Reset Button
In this short story, a girl named Lana allows her friend to stay at her house for some time. However, Lana’s friend is a drug addict and because of this, their friendship may come to an end.
Angel Prayers
This short story involves a girl named Milani who is having a difficult time at school and in her life. Things are not getting better for Milani, and she struggles throughout her lifetime.
The events of this short story occurred in the woods when a student and Milani talked about it.
We have talked about free play scripts for drama students and what play scripts are all about. There are websites where drama students can get free play scripts. You can check out these websites whenever you want to.
They include Simplyscripts.com, Oneactplays.com, and Dramatix.com.
Conclusion
Play scripts are written in various genres, and they are also the instruction for actors. We have seen great playwrights from ancient Greek and their works have positively influenced entertainment today.
Actors need to understand the characters they are playing to bring the best scene to the audience. Play scripts are important in theatre production and every actor needs to put up a performance for the audience.
We hope the information in this guide about free play scripts for drama students was helpful.
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