THE SCENE AS A MICROCOSM OF THE PLAY
As we have seen, every play has a design of action, a basic structure to which each segment of the text connects. Within this larger framework are smaller units of action - whose cumulative action comprises the plot and advances the through. action of a play.
A good scene is a microcosm of the play, reflecting its structure, style, and theme; it also ideally contains the essential elements of the drama-conflict, crisis, and dramatic tension.
The scene is the basic unit through which student actors explore their craft, and your understanding of play analysis will help you to dissect its anatomy effectively.
Defining a Scene
Scene divisions are formulated in several ways. In classical drama, plays are divided by the author into large divisions acts and the acts are divided into smaller segments scenes. Each division is made because of a change of place or characters. Within these formal structural scenes, there are beats that form a natural division of dramatic action within the larger one. The term French scene refers to a change in the scene caused by the entrance or exit of a major character.
Your job as an actor is to learn to recognize the natural breakdown of dramatic content within a play. In many modern plays, there may be no change of place, and the same characters may be present on stage for the entire play. Yet within this consistent structure, there are organic divisions when the direction of the overall dramatic action of the play is altered or advanced in some way. In this case, the scene is defined by its emotional content expressed through a change in scene objective, and you need to learn to recognize such sections.
To formulate a scene objective, ask yourself why this scene is crucial to the play and how it reflects the central conflict of the plot. How does it serve the plots dramatic action? Inherent in your answer will be the key to the scene's objective and the characters' goals.
To recapitulate, a workable scene for acting class is a unit of the dramatic action that possesses a clear central conflict and objective in relation to the superobjective of the play. The content is thus vital to the dramatic action. Its start and finish are often marked by the entrance or departure of a named character, or a change in action and objective of the scene or character.
Scene Structure and Conflict
Just as the play has an architecture of action that gives it form, each scene has a shape that reinforces its content and meaning. The energizing force of conflict drives the scene as it drives the play.
A scene's structure usually parallels that of the climactic plot, with a rising and falling action. To chart the rising tension, ask yourself what are the opposing forces in your scene. What is the nature of the inciting conflict? Follow the progression of the conflict, how it intensifies and does or does not resolve. The point of highest intensity is the scene's climax. Scenes that are not the climactic scenes of the plot may have weak climaxes or may end in crisis; often, there is no resolution within a scene, merely an easing of tension that enables the action to progress to the next scene. Once you have defined the structure of your scene, you can learn to build the arc of dramatic action through your acting.
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