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BYU Theatre Education
Playwriting: Broken Fairytales

Lesson 2: Writing Your Script

August 27, 2024 06:30 PM

by Savannah Johnson

Standards:

Standard 7-8.T.CR.3: Use form and structure to create a scene or play with a beginning, middle, and end that includes full character development, believable dialogue, and logical plot outcomes.

Essential Questions:

What is the form that a script takes on?

What is the Aristotelian story structure?

Enduring Understandings:

Students will understand how to format a script through the view of examples and note taking.

Students will understand how to structure a story through the discussion of examples in pop culture.

Objective:

Students will create a broken fairytale by writing a script that will be performed in a future class.

Materials:

Hat with slips of the various fairy tales

Timer videos (Links in plan)

PowerPoint: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1xFTEr6ujMJSJLf5igYSd54M6OZCeOFSzsJaHYbe8BSA/edit?usp=sharing

Chromebooks

Instruction:

HOOK: (15 minutes)

  • Why are you late? 

    • Students say they know this name, but just in case these are the rules that we are playing with: 

      • One person will play the boss. 
      • Two people will be the employees that are already at work. 
      • There will be one late employee. 
      • The boss will ask why the person is late and the two employees that are already at work will come up with and silently act out why the other employee is late. They will do so without getting caught by the boss, who can turn around at any time! 
      • After the story ends, the boss will let them into work and the boss will exit the stage. The employee that has been on stage the longest will become the boss now.
    • Focus on story structure, let the students know that there should be a climax and the falling action should be the boss leaving and switching out. 
    • Once the game is over, have students remind you of the parts of the story structure and why they are important.

PROJECT INSTRUCTIONS: (10 minutes)

  • Today we will be writing our very own scripts! Whoop Whoop! 

  • About just anything, nope! We are going to be rewriting fairy tales! What you are going to do, you will take the story that we all know of (and maybe love) and you will create the script. 

    • For example if I am doing the three little pigs, I am writing the exposition, I am writing the inciting incident, I am writing the rising action. 

  • However! The climax and the solution/falling action will be different. 

    • So, if I am doing my three little pigs script, my climax might not be the huffing and puffing, but it could be the robbing the pigs of their food or taking the straw and the sticks and creating a costume and living with the pigs as the long lost 4th brother. 

  • What are the keys to this assignment? (Have these on a slide on the board)

    • That it follows the Aristotelian story structure
    • That it is 3-5 minutes long
    • That the climax and the falling action and resolution are different!
    • Max 2-4 characters

CHOOSE YOUR STORY: (10 -20 minutes)

  • In order to decide what story you will be writing, you will come up and choose the story from the hat! 

    • Inside will be the following options: 

      • Cinderella 
      • The ugly duckling 
      • Goldilocks and the Three bears
      • Princess and the Pea
      • The Three Little Pigs
      • Sleeping Beauty
      • Boy who Cried Wolf
    • If you need a review on what that particular fairytale is, I am sure that wikipedia has a great summary! Or phone a friend! (Give students a 10 minute time frame to make that noise) 

WRITING TIME: (30-35 minutes)

CLEAN UP: (5 Minutes)

  • Have students clean up.
  • Putting away all of the things they got out. 
  • Decide if they get a letter or not. 
Tags
scriptwork