How to Work Idea/Theme into Play

Hatcher sees 2 ways of putting an idea/theme into in play:
1. Overtly in dialogue or monologue. Hatcher calls this the "direct, rhetorical approach"
2. In Actions/Plot. "Character + Conflict x Action = Idea approach"
(Hatcher, 1996, p.42).
Hatcher does not recommend overtly. There are times for this, but better to put idea in the actions of the characters. Hatcher argues "an audience will always listen more carefully and become more personally involved with an idea when it is presented dramatically. It is one thing to hear a psychiatrist in a play say 'Sometimes it's better to leave a person with her delusions than it is to cure her.' It is another to see her

• Try to Cure her patient
• Fight the delusion
• Cure the patient
• Witness the light go out of the patient's eyes
• and Reverse the painful results of 'sanity'

It's the show-don't tell principle. Remember: An audience is a detective. They look for evidence, and they believe what they can see. What they see are the actions."
(Hatcher, 1996, p.43). Author's emphasis

The Best Plays...

"The best plays come from ideas that are

• personal/societal/spiritual concerns of the playwright
• personal/societal/spiritual concerns of the audience
• best shown through dramatic action"

(Hatcher, 1996, p.42). Emphasis added

Which Comes First?

Which comes first story or idea/theme?
Hatcher says it doesn't matter. You may start with an interesting story and eventually work out the theme. Or you may "intellectualize the idea, then articulate that idea in dramatic actions" (Hatcher, 1996, p.41). author's emphasis
"Maybe some great playwrights start with the great thematic idea, but the truth is that good dramatists have a nose for an exciting story that has the potential for exciting ideas" (Hatcher, 1996, p.41).

Moving an Audience

"As playwrights, we want to move our audience, to change or deepen their thoughts and feelings, to give them something to remember" (Hatcher, 1996, p.40).

Hatcher mentions Anna Deavere Smith's play called Fires in the Mirror. (Here "racism" is the"idea" or theme.) Hatcher uses "idea" interchangeably with theme.

Aristotle's 6 Elements of Drama Theory (from Poetics)

"action or plot
character
thought or ideas
language, diction or verbal expression
music or song
spectacle, image or visual adornment"
(Hatcher, 1996, p.21)

Note: see thought/idea