Hi playwrights! Ready for a real challenge? Today we’re going to write a comedic scene with serious undertones.
Day 12 – Play with Surface Comedy: Using two characters from your stock company (other than those used in the confrontation scene, write a 10-minute scene that is outwardly comic, although the situation is serious for one or both of the characters. Adapted from The Playwright’s Handbook, by Frank Pike and Thomas G. Dunn (Revised Edition, 1996).
This is a powerful dynamic that can serve several different purposes, adding poignancy or providing comic relief to a tense situation. Maybe your characters are fighting about something really dumb, but it becomes apparent that the argument is morphing into “the argument” that recurs between them. Maybe something ridiculous happens and, in trying to fix it, the characters make it much, much worse. Maybe the characters have a sudden fit of giggles during a serious moment–during a funeral, a wedding toast, or a church service.
So what’s funny? Did you know there are at least 20 different types of comedy? Challenge yourself even further by picking one randomly and trying to incorporate it into your scene.
Happy writing!