Hi playwrights! In Day 2 we move on from settings to characters, but stick with the idea of drawing inspiration both from our memories and our present-day observations.
Day 2 – Characters: Write a short, pithy paragraph about how a present stranger you observe (the ‘present character’) and a person you were close to that you haven’t seen for some time (the ‘past character’) dress. Then, based on your observations and recollections, write a brief personality profile/life history for both the ‘present character’ and the ‘past character.’ Adapted from The Playwright’s Handbook, by Frank Pike and Thomas G. Dunn (Revised Edition, 1996).
Start with the basics: name, age, physical description and dress (in one or two sentences). Then briefly describe the character’s relationship to one or more other characters, a sentence or two about a major event or theme in the character’s life up to this point, and a word or two about what the character is like. Curmudgeonly? Cloying? Does she constantly make lists and jot things down that she wants to remember later? Is he overeager, just a little too excited about everything? Is she quiet and reserved, always letting others talk over her?
And remember who your reader is. An audience will never hear these words. It’s the actors who will read them and, putting them together with the dialogue you’ve written, breathe life into the characters on the page. Just as you did with your setting descriptions, include concrete details but not so much description that your actors will feel trapped by what you’ve written. And keep the physical descriptions pretty general, so that lots of different actors could play the role.
[updated]
Present Character: Collum “Mac” MacElroy, 83 years old, is dressed in loafers, khakis, and a blue chambray shirt. For 55 years he has donned this same outfit, parked his Oldsmobile sedan in the same spot on the 6th floor of the parking garage, and produced a fistful of jingling keys to unlock the frosted glass door that reads “MacElroy Engineering.” Mac is an old-school engineer, employing pocket protectors and slide rules with no sense of irony. He works out problems on graph paper, sitting at a massive tilted drafting table in his modest office, and then passes them off to the young men in his employ, who clack their key boards and shuffle their corded mice, turning his elegant diagrams into lifeless digitizations. Feeling nostalgic, Mac occasionally insists on using the old blueprint machine, filling the air with the acrid smell of ammonia. He has watched the slow decline of the once-vibrant downtown around him and is acutely aware that his is one of only a few remaining businesses in the old brick mid-rise buildings on Main Street.
Past Character: Allister Frisbie, 62 years old, wears dark jeans and a Celtic music festival T-shirt. He carries a corduroy blazer in case he needs to make himself presentable but rarely puts it on. Frisbie’s once red hair has gone gray but still falls in thick waves across his forehead. He is near-sighted, often removing his wire frame glasses to twirl them in one hand while reading. A regular at the Arrowhead Café, Frisbie reads the morning paper front to back over a large mug of Ginger tea. A criminal defense lawyer who once mounted an unsuccessful campaign to become a circuit court judge, Frisbie is also an artist. His oil paintings and woodcut prints line the walls of the café. He enjoys watching, unnoticed, as people stop to look at his artwork. Out of respect, the staff of the Arrowhead make it a point never to “out” him to their other clientele.