THEATRICAL SCRIPT: CHARACTERISTICS, TYPES, FUNCTIONS, EXAMPLES - LITERATURE - 2025

A theatrical script is a text that contains the dialogues and technical details that are needed in the assembly and realization of a play. It is a script addressed to all those who participate in the work, to guide them in the performance of their duties.

The theatrical script is about a guide that a playwright makes to describe the actions, dialogues, technical or artistic aspects that make a staging possible and whose participants must take into account.

In the theater script all the instructions that the actors must follow appear. Source: pixabay.com.

This theatrical text has specific characteristics that allow the fluid unfolding of the story, since it contains the guidelines that the actors, set designers, director, costumes and other team members must follow.

Theater scripts are also made up of some elements that give it unique features. Hence, they contain the parliaments, scenes and acts that give life to the story, as well as the actions that the characters must carry out. Lighting, sound and costumes are contained in it.

General characteristics of theatrical scripts

Some of the most important characteristics of the theater script are the following:

Dialogues

Dialogues or conversations are fundamental within the theatrical script. This is because through them the characters perform actions, express their emotions and thoughts. In addition, the dialogues indicate to the actors the moment of their participation.

Scenographic data

Every theatrical script has a description of the scenery that accompanies the staging, which determines the time and place where the actions take place. In general, the author of the theater text notes the specific features that each painting in the play should have.

Structure

A theatrical script tells a story through an introduction, middle or ending. In each of them the author or playwright presents the relevant and striking aspects of the staging, and these details are what usually attract the public.

Variety

The theatrical script has a descriptive variety, since in it the different activities that each of the members of the staging and the entire human team must carry out are disclosed. In this class of texts the tasks and responsibilities of each participant are specified.

To the above, it is added that the theatrical script can be: technical script, actor's script, director's script, illuminators' technical script, costume script, among others.

ID

The theatrical script is also known or identified with the name of notebook, theater notebook or page. Regardless of the way it is called, this type of text must comply with the purpose of exposing the guidelines that have to be carried out so that the staging has an optimal end.

Features

A theatrical script must fulfill the following functions:

-To guide the actors so that they know the respective dialogues.

-Support the members of the work, so that they know the assembly guidelines.

-Inform everyone about their roles and responsibilities.

-Inform the group about the activities and when they will take place during the role-play.

Elements of the theatrical script

A theatrical script is made up of the following elements:

Characters

Characters in the theatrical script are identified by names and are almost always highlighted in bold. This element describes the parliaments or dialogues that an actor must express, also indicates the actions and their relevance within the play.

On the other hand, in the theatrical script the characters can present an order of appearance in the staging, as well as a number of times according to their importance in the story. Hence, the characters are main, secondary or referential.

Scenes

The scenes are those that determine the time in which the characters or actors keep participating in an action. In the theater script a scene change is specified, whenever an actor leaves or enters the stage. This element belongs to a larger unit called an act.

In other words, the scenes detail the action, space, and time in a dramatic work. For this reason they are considered a fundamental rhythmic structure of the theatrical setting.

Parliaments

Parliaments in the theater script refer to the verbal expression in the form of dialogues or monologues that the characters have. These pronouncements vary in length and duration according to the importance of the character in the story. These texts also identify the intervention of some type of narrator.

Picture

It is a brief situation or short dialogue that occurs within a scene, usually it may or may not change the scenery or scenery of the play. It is considered that this element is made up of several scenes, at the same time it has independence in terms of approach, development and outcome.

Act

An act is the main division of the play, through each of them the most significant events in history are specified. This element of the theatrical script is usually formed in turn by several scenes and correspond to the beginning, development and end of the work.

Usually an act is identified when the stage lights go out or the curtain is lowered. In short, the act endows the story represented with logic, order and coherence.

Annotations

The annotations are the different annotations that the author or playwright forms in order to make known the actions, feelings, clothing or entry and exit of a character from the stage. To differentiate them from parliaments, they are usually written in parentheses or brackets.

Types

In order to present the set of guidelines necessary in the staging of the story, the author must develop 2 types of scripts: the literary and the technical.

Literary script

Present in an orderly way the theme of the story, the dialogues of each character and the action they must take during their representation.

Technical script

It contains the texts, the annotations or comments for the technical staff, including: directors, costumers, make-up artists, sound engineers, set designers and others responsible for the realization and staging of the theatrical work.

How to make a theatrical script

The theatrical script also indicates how the scene should be decorated and what costumes should be used. Source: pixabay.com.

History

The first step in making a theatrical script is to develop the idea of ​​the story that you want to tell, whether in the dramatic, comic, horror, adventure genre or an adaptation of an existing play. In this part the context in which the staging will take place is located, as well as the places and time.

Character development

Once the story has been chosen for the play, the characters are created. It is necessary to give them importance and prominence. This way you will have an idea of ​​how many times it will appear on the scene.

Similarly, the author or playwright must specify the physical, psychological and emotional characteristics of each of the characters.

Structure

One of the steps that is applied for the development of a theatrical script is the organization that will have the play. This means that an outline of the beginning, middle and end must be made, as well as the number of pictures, scenes and acts in which the story will be divided.

Script development

After having devised the story, characters, and structure, the final script is written. In it, the characters are identified with their own name, the parliament of each one and the way in which they enter and leave the scene, the costumes and the scenery that accompany their actions are noted.

Now, the theater script should have a focused title that relates to the story of the play. The characters are placed under the title according to their importance. On the other hand, each of the acts is identified with a number and briefly describes the part of the story that takes place at that time.

Then the corresponding table is described with the description of the environment that surrounds the characters. Then the corresponding scene is written, which will change each time a character enters or leaves. Finally, under the identification of the scene the parliaments are written.

Review

Finally, the playwright or author of the theatrical script carefully reviews everything he has written. This is done in order to make sure that all the elements are organized and the story is coherent and follows a chronological order.

Examples of theater scripts

- The proof of love

Act i

María, Antonieta and Patricia are 2nd year students and they are in the central courtyard of the school taking their break, dressed in their uniforms.

Maria - (sad) You know girls, I have something to tell you!

Antonieta - (looks at her face) What's up friend?

Isabel - (worried) You are scaring me, say quickly what is wrong with you?

María - (with a shy voice) Is that my boyfriend, Manuel, do you remember him?, Antonieta, Isabel - (they both look at her face and stand up) Of course we know who it is! But what's up, friend?

María - (with tears in her eyes) My boyfriend, Manuel, wants a proof of love.

Isabel - (astonished) what is wrong with him? He went crazy!

Antonieta - (looks at her astonished face) and what kind of proof do you need?

At that, the bell rings that announces that the recess ends and they must enter the room.

Teacher - (walking around the room) Good morning guys, today we will talk about dating and love relationships. Who has a boyfriend or girlfriends?

Several students raise their hands, but Maria.

Isabel - (with a little doubt, raises her hand) I have a boyfriend, teacher, and he is asking me for a proof of love. What should I do?

Marie and Antoinette look at her with anguish and make gestures of claim.

Teacher - (walking through the room, he approaches Isabel) and what do you think is a proof of love?

Antonieta - (with a shy smile) good teacher you know, have sex.

Teacher - (approaches María) the proof of love should be given to you by your boyfriend, respecting you and taking great care of you!

Teacher - (walking through the room, he addresses everyone) That is a proof of the purest and truest love and if it insists, it doesn't deserve you, because it doesn't value you.

Isabel, María and Antonieta - (The friends look at each other's faces and shake their heads negatively) no, no, no, he doesn't deserve me!

Characters: Isabel, María, Antonieta, Professor.

- Bernarda Alba's house

Federico Garcia Lorca

Characters:

- Bernarda (60-year-old woman).

- María Josefa (Bernarda's mother).

- Anguish.

- The poncia.

- Woman 1.

- Magdalena.

- Maid.

- Woman 2.

- Amelia.

- Beggar.

- Woman 3.

- Martyrdom.

- Women in mourning.

- Woman 4.

- Adela.

- Girl.

Act I.

Very white room inside Bernarda's house. Thick walls. Arched door with jute curtains topped with strawberry trees and ruffles. Cattails chairs. Paintings with unlikely landscapes of nymphs or legendary kings. It's summer. A great shady silence stretches across the scene. When the curtain rises, the scene is alone. The bells are tolling.

(The maid exits).

- Maid: I already have twice those bells tucked between my temples.

- La Poncia: (comes out eating chorizo ​​and bread). They have been gori-gori for more than two hours. Priests have come from all the towns. The church is beautiful. In the first response, Magdalena fainted.

- Maid: She is the one who stays the loneliest.

- La Poncia: She was the only one who loved her father. Oh! Thank God we're alone a little bit! I have come to eat.

- Maid: If Bernarda saw you!

- La Poncia: I wish that now that she doesn't eat that we would all die of hunger! Bossy! Dominate! But it is annoying! I have opened the lump of sausages.

- Maid: (sadly, anxiously) Why don't you give me for my girl, Poncia?

(…).

References

1. Gómez G., M. (1997). Theater Dictionary, Madrid, Akal.
2. Recognition of the elements of the theatrical script. Recovered from: mineducacion.gov.co
3. Scripts for plays. Recovered from: tramody.com
4. Script. Recovered from: udlap.mx
5. Vanoye, F. (1996) Model scripts and script models: Classic and modern arguments in the cinema. Barcelona, ​​Grupo Planeta.