Ideas for a short play?

[Save_Ferris]

Hey, I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I'm supposed to come up with a 10-page paper for my Directing and Playwriting class, and I've run short of ideas. Does anyone have an idea that they would want to write a play around, but don't know how to? I'll post the script afterwards. By the way, I don't want you to write the scene, just give me some ideas. Thanks!

(I posted this in the Tavern because A&E is still getting no traffic)

 

[Quackers]

upside down mermaid

 

[WindFish]

The Search for Maggie T's heart

 

[Skwink]

Make a play about Ron Paul going back in time to fight Abraham Lincoln, but in a surprise twist Hitler has come back in time for the same purpose. They all settle their differences fairly quickly, but then Lincoln gets shot in the head.

Then Ron Paul and Hitler leave the theater and try to come up with a way for Hitler to get out of his relationship with Eva and into one with his secretary.

 

[Antilogic]

Skwink stole my first idea. Only one I have now is about a mentally ******** alcoholic Jewish boy and his cancer-ridden puppy trying to survive the Holocaust.

 

[civver_764]

Some dude is in a space ship that blows up and he just has to drift around in empty space while his oxygen runs out and he thinks about the meaning of life.

 

[Save_Ferris]

I forgot to mention that I care about my grade.

 

[Antilogic]

That idea I stole from American Dad is definitely worthy of a prize at the Oscars. I'm thinking gold.

 

[Skwink]

I forgot to mention that I care about my grade.

Then when you write Hitler's lines make sure your German is correct.

 

[FriendlyFire]

I forgot to mention that I care about my grade.

Damm there goes my idea about Bush assassinating Obama, going onto to be a third term president and becoming the Greatest president since Lincoln.

 

[Antilogic]

So long as Bush runs on the ticket with Zombie Reagan as his VP and then resigns on the first day, I think that idea could work.

 

[ace99]

Hey, I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I'm supposed to come up with a 10-page paper for my Directing and Playwriting class, and I've run short of ideas. Does anyone have an idea that they would want to write a play around, but don't know how to? I'll post the script afterwards. By the way, I don't want you to write the scene, just give me some ideas. Thanks!

(I posted this in the Tavern because A&E is still getting no traffic)

"The War Between the States"

~a drama in one act~

*A fellow takes his evening constitutional. On his ambling, he encounters another fellow, viciously beating his dog.*

First Fellow: "Oi! Stop treating your dog like that!"
Second Fellow: "No! It's my dog, I'll do as I like."
1: "You can't, it's illegal- I'll call the police!"
2:"You should buy the dog off me, then I'll stop."
1:"Well, okay, if that's what it takes..."
2:"What? NO!"
1:"But you sa-"
2:"Shut up, I'm quitting."
1:"I don't... What?"
2:"Perish, tyrant!" *swings fist*
1:"Oh, jeez, wow, what the hell!?"
2:"Have at thee!" *swings again*
1: "Christ!" *punches*
2: *falling to the ground* "Fascist!"
1: *gathering up dog* "You are a very strange person." *departs*
2: *muffled* "I shall rise again!"

You can thank Traitorfish

 

[Kennigit]

Is it supposed to written so that it can be acted out on a stage taking into accounts props/setting changes or is a hypothetical script entirely okay? I.e. a play about someone in space would lose a lot of oomph on the stage, but in short 3000-5000 words it can be good.

In the spirits of Mayans 'cuz huehuehue december 2012, I'd write a thing about some fictional city of the mayans on yucatan peninsula who never meet the spanish but hear word from it from a group of 6 people who comes to town then everybody dies from smallpox. The town kind of knew the 6 people and respected them all though.

First scene is two central characters overhearing those 6 people talking to a crowd of the mayans in the town plaza, and/or the crowd kinda half believing random stories about it, with like 4 lines that vary from rational "so people came to town so what?" to some mystic old hag to some people denying it happened.

The two characters a young male (19) with some chick of his (15) who are married or in love or whatever in attendance. It's pretty short, but the male leaves the crowd before the talk is over and kind of scoffs it off/doesn't believe it. Girl doesn't know what to think. But again, they just hear maybe a minute of dialogue and he had to go do X action. They talk about it a little bit, and maybe wonder what the world is.

Act 2 the town has begun to get infected with smallpox brought by those 6 men and there is various turmoil that happens with the two characters and their circle of close-age friends. 1 or 2 of their 10 friends are sick with smallpox, but people still kind of think the disease may be for "bad" people. Let's say ~3-4 of their friends are in agreement with the town to kill 1 particular man of the 6 men who came to town. 2 of the 6 men who came to town died of small pox already, 1 is currently sick, and the 3 healthy ones are all being accused of stuff by the mob mentality of the town. Naturally, 2 of the healthy ones shifted the blame entirely to the third healthy guy once the mobs started forming, 2:1 type of deal, so the town has a little red herring/scapegoat.

Over the course of 2-3 days in the play's setting that develops some. Again, the town kind of knew the 6 men beforehand and they respect those 3 healthy ones in particular, so they didn't kill them immediately. Now 3 of the 6 men are dead, and you have 2 of them saying "we didn't do this, it was all Joe bob here (#3 of the healthy)!". Eventually everyone is in agreement that Joe brought this plague and needs to get slaughtered.

The guy main character goes and kills the "death bringer" with his healthy male friends 'cuz they're the young healthy 19-21 year old guys. They kill that dude and are applauded. The girl wasn't there when they dragged out the death bringer to town square and killed him. The main character goes and finds her, and she is sick. End scene.

Act 3 now 6/10 of their friends are dead and girl is sick. Insert romance stuff. The girl main character with the small pox dies. 80% of the town is dead. The others of the town fled. The main character is all emotional and all, and the scene ends with him crying into his hands and then he starts freaking out because he sees the little small pox bumps in the palms of his hands that he cried into. End scene.

Play ends with some random white dudes 3 years later (spanish) who are in another town with a translator asking about information of the surrounding area. They hear that there "used to be a town" over by X, but it was destroyed by disease. Maybe the spanish scoff to each other about the primitiveness of the civilization, that they can't be internally stable like the great and glorious Spanish Empire.

the spanish literally did nothing but an entire town was wiped out, and all the characters died or are implied to have the disease.

I reserve rights though.

 

[Antilogic]

I suggest a dramatic re-imagining of the dramatic re-imagining of the Wizard of Oz, like they did on the Sci Fi channel. It's of the appropriate length and intelligence for a short high-school play.

Really, any sci-fi B-movie will do.

 

[Ajidica]

If you have read A Canticle for Leibowitz some scenes could make good short plays, especially the sequences between Thon Taddeo and Dom Paulo. Ever since I've read it I have thought it would make an excellent play.

 

[mangxema]

Really, any sci-fi B-movie will do.

 

[Antilogic]

Both of which are excellent movies!

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Hey, I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I'm supposed to come up with a 10-page paper for my Directing and Playwriting class, and I've run short of ideas. Does anyone have an idea that they would want to write a play around, but don't know how to? I'll post the script afterwards. By the way, I don't want you to write the scene, just give me some ideas. Thanks!

(I posted this in the Tavern because A&E is still getting no traffic)

A&E gets plenty of traffic...

You don't make clear if you actually have to write a play (a scene or really short one-act, I presume), or if you're writing a paper about writing a play.

Which is it? And if you have to write a scene/play, what genre(s) interest you? ('cause it's easier to write about what you like, obviously)

 

[Glassfan]

Hey, I know I haven't posted here in a while, but I'm supposed to come up with a 10-page paper for my Directing and Playwriting class, and I've run short of ideas. Does anyone have an idea that they would want to write a play around, but don't know how to? I'll post the script afterwards. By the way, I don't want you to write the scene, just give me some ideas. Thanks!

(I posted this in the Tavern because A&E is still getting no traffic)

How about a one-man-play about someone on the Civ Forums - going back and forth, arguing with people on the machine, wife/mother (offstage) demanding he take out garbage, computer crashes/freezes, anguish over the just the correct smilie , multiple themes of isolation and community...

That would be a "D" and an "X".

 

[azzaman333]

I hear love stories about reverse mermaids go well.