| 单词 | playlet |
| 例句 | Clive Barnes of The New York Times praised it as a “sprightly quartet of revue-style playlets,” written with “compassion, insight and irony.” Joseph Bologna, Onscreen Tough Guy With a Sense of Humor, Dies at 82 2017-08-14T04:00:00Z An exuberant celebration of binational playmaking, the project enlists 20 dramatists — 10 Russian, 10 American — and presents versions of their playlets in both languages. Review | Binational playmaking takes exuberant, revealing form in the Russian-American ‘Flash Acts’ 2020-10-21T04:00:00Z It translates the young adulthood of These Kids Today, with their juice smoothies and their social-justice instincts, into unpatronizing playlets expressly designed for teens and intermittently delightful to oldsters. Wearing Its Topicality Lightly, “The Bold Type” Is a Show to Warm a Jaded Heart 2018-06-19T04:00:00Z I saw five of the seven playlets on offer—all minor feats of characterization. Close Encounters of the Theatrical Kind 2015-05-27T04:00:00Z Some, like the disabled woman who ends each show, feel like conventional playlets, probably with scripts written down somewhere. Comedy gold – Whoopi Goldberg 2013-05-10T16:04:00Z In the second playlet, “Not I,” the actress depicts the protagonist: a disembodied mouth hovering midair, amid darkness. Review | One actress commands the stage in Scena Theatre’s ‘The Beckett Trio’ 2018-03-20T04:00:00Z I caught the other showcase: an enjoyable group of six playlets with the umbrella title “Covert Catalyst.” Brace for fun in Source Festival’s new plays 2017-06-19T04:00:00Z In fact, a chance to see snippets of Ionesco’s obscure works, some staged as playlets, but more often with added music and songs, is the main attraction. Theater Review: ?Ionescopade? at the York Theater at St. Peter?s 2012-02-11T00:18:38Z In scenes staged with wavering style by Michole Biancosino, the relationship between the men moves from dramatic playlet to vaudevillian double act. Theater Review: ‘User’s Guide To Hell Featuring Bernard Madoff’ by Project Y 2013-09-09T21:37:18Z Ms. May’s “George is Dead” presents even drearier depictions of women, but the playlets as a whole are such offensive throwbacks, it seems petty to quibble with how any one group is treated. Critic?s Notebook: Women Playwrights and Gender Stereotypes on Broadway 2011-12-24T01:47:25Z This minimalist indie with a title appropriate for a Judd Apatow comedy, is a smart seriocomic playlet with some emotionally harsh moments, although it refrains from plumbing its subject in agonizing depth. | 'The Freebie': Loving Couple Wonder Where the Ardor Went 2010-09-16T23:53:00Z Essentially, this is a series of snippets of overheard conversations that work like tiny playlets and come together like a jigsaw puzzle to create a fascinating patchwork picture of 21st-century life in Britain. This week's new theatre 2011-07-29T23:06:00Z The chance to do more of it presented itself during the pandemic, when Monahon worked on virtual playlets for the 24 Hour Plays. Four Rising Theater Stars to Watch This Spring 2023-02-23T05:00:00Z Conveniently, they have a prop gun coated in gold glitter in a handy drawer, which she can use in their playlet. ‘Notes on Killing’ Review: For These Puerto Ricans, Promises Never Kept 2022-05-30T04:00:00Z "Nothing tells an emotional journey like a 15-act playlet," Mr. Rash said. The Carpetbagger: From Jolie-ing at the Oscars to a Sundance Ovation 2013-01-23T15:00:22Z Find new ways to stage this disturbing little playlet. Is “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” a date-rape anthem? 2012-12-10T21:14:00Z A living history park for the upper classes, the Savage Lands offer playlets based on antiquated customs — marriage, consumerism. ‘Brave New World’ Arrives in the Future It Predicted 2020-07-13T04:00:00Z New Yorker Will Eno's quirky, heartbreaking and surprisingly optimistic playlets expose our foibles and failings. Edinburgh festival 2012 preview: the best shows and hottest picks 2012-07-29T18:31:01Z Their Double Down Hearts sketch show bagged them an Edinburgh Comedy Award nomination in 2008, and it was fantastic entertainment, with bizarre playlets, hilariously awkward audience interaction and top-drawer gags. This week's new comedy: Edinburgh special 2011-08-12T23:09:07Z She and Smith turn the double-edged duet “You Must Meet My Wife” into a veritable Noel Coward playlet. Review | Signature opens season with ‘A Little Night Music,’ one of Sondheim’s precious gems 2017-08-24T04:00:00Z So far, there are 74 new playlets archived on the Play at Home website — all to be downloaded free, and with parts suggested for anywhere from “one human” to 100. Theaters may be dark, but theater-makers are still finding ways to dazzle you 2020-05-14T04:00:00Z The way he portrays their relationship, both in old age and the afterlife, begins modestly and evolves into a lovely and melancholy playlet. Review: Louis C.K., Performing His Best Stand-Up Since 2010 2016-09-09T04:00:00Z At that point you are caught up in standards delivered as extravagantly acted playlets in which her voice and body language recall Judy Garland and Édith Piaf. Music Review: Keeping Torch Songs Ablaze 2010-11-21T22:34:00Z The playlets are reminiscent of those empty-calorie short stories from The New Yorker. Review: ‘Good Muslim’ Highlights a Mixed Bag of One-Acts 2017-06-19T04:00:00Z One of the successes of “Flash Acts” arises from the dialogues between the companion playlets. Review | Binational playmaking takes exuberant, revealing form in the Russian-American ‘Flash Acts’ 2020-10-21T04:00:00Z Dizzyingly variegated, and coursing with punk-rock-style energy, the show changes regularly as old playlets are retired and new ones premiere. Chicago’s Neo-Futurists courses with punk rock energy in ‘Too Much Light’ 2015-12-10T05:00:00Z Her first print appearance is an eight-page playlet for children by Esther Watkins Arnold from 1927, and the oldest oral references date her to approximately the turn of the 20th century. Don’t tell the kids: The real history of the tooth fairy 2014-02-09T14:00:00Z The first was a playlet in the form of a creation parable, the second a rhythm-and-blues musical set in a Las Vegas hotel suite. Will Holt, Who Wrote ‘Lemon Tree,’ Dies at 86 2015-06-04T04:00:00Z Peep was an odd production, a triptych of 20-minute playlets for which the creative team had constructed a new makeshift venue outside the Pleasance Courtyard. Edinburgh fringe theatre roundup 2012-08-04T23:06:05Z Most songs presented a mood or an attitude; Orbison’s were often melodramatic playlets. The All-TIME 100 Songs 2011-10-24T09:00:29Z The playlets are not necessarily historical; many are riffs from modern characters on the persistence of divisions along racial, ethnic, even gender lines. Army of playwrights and D.C. celebs amass for Arena’s ‘Our War’ Such is the case in Will Eno's five playlets, which taps into this with wit and compassion. This week's new theatre and dance 2012-08-03T23:05:34Z We've lost the habit of watching comics acting playlets – as the waiter in a Tandoori restaurant, say, talking to an imagined group of rowdy diners. Comedy gold – Rowan Atkinson Live 2013-02-28T16:26:02Z The hotel imposes on the inmates a bland collective culture of banal romantic pop songs and didactic playlets that dramatize the virtues of couplehood. The Petty Laments of Yorgos Lanthimos’s “The Lobster” 2016-05-23T04:00:00Z Correction: A previous version of this story said “The Race” actors would lead viewers through dramatized playlets including an excerpt from Sophocles’s “Antigone.” How imperiled is our democracy? ‘The Race’ wants you to weigh in. 2020-10-19T04:00:00Z “Quiche” started off as a 10-minute playlet, and 10 minutes into this expanded version, you may feel you’ve had quite enough, thank you. Theater Review: ‘5 Lesbians Eating a Quiche’ at SoHo Playhouse 2012-10-22T04:40:05Z That work was an expansion of a playlet staged as part of an anthology, called “Urban Blight,” at Manhattan Theater Club in 1988. ArtsBeat: Tyne Daly to Star in New Terrence McNally Play on Broadway 2013-08-19T17:58:02Z He also contributed a playlet to the Broadway production of “Relatively Speaking” in 2011. Playwright Ethan Coen Fears He’s Selling Out 2013-09-13T23:32:26Z I stop to think about how many times in my life I’ve enacted this absurd little playlet. A ‘Girl Singer’ and Her Extra Hair Hit the Road 2022-07-27T04:00:00Z Sometimes rather a lot of scaffolding is needed to get a playlet built, but Sykes always earns laughs for how well she plays it. Comedy Gold: Wanda Sykes – Sick and Tired 2013-01-10T16:33:28Z You get all three, and much more, with this double act from Albuquerque, whose mind-expanding live-cartoon playlets – animated with grace, great skill and unpredictable humour – have brightened many a fringe. Edinburgh festival 2013: our critics' picks 2013-07-15T05:59:01Z The heavy-handed attempt at dramatic irony in the flimsy connection between the playlets brought a maudlin resonance to this unconvincing encounter. Any Given Day 2010-06-12T23:05:00Z Together these wide-ranging collections gather stories, essays, book reviews, journalism, poems, playlets, recipes, comics and numerous other Sladekian oddments. Review | Beyond George R.R. Martin: A critic’s pick of science fiction and fantasy 2019-04-30T04:00:00Z Now the Traverse is attempting something that, while not impossible, would once have seemed recklessly ambitious: tonight it is beaming these two playlets and three more to 30 cinemas around the UK and Ireland. Plays beamed into cinemas: is this the future of theatre? 2010-08-22T21:00:00Z The fallback is this online version, in which five actors from the original production, who were Georgetown undergraduates in 2008, plus eight current students, lead viewers through some dramatized playlets. How imperiled is our democracy? ‘The Race’ wants you to weigh in. 2020-10-19T04:00:00Z But the little dance playlets Pita devised to show us the stories in the songs seldom left any room for deeply expressive performances. BodyTraffic brings a light touch — perhaps too light — to the Broad Stage 2016-10-28T04:00:00Z And they are keeping that commitment this summer with their 11th edition of "Quickies" — a slate of bite-size playlets by various local and out-of-town authors. Bite-sized playlets offered by Live Girls! 2010-06-24T19:32:00Z The other two playlets are nearly as austere. Review | One actress commands the stage in Scena Theatre’s ‘The Beckett Trio’ 2018-03-20T04:00:00Z The choice is out of character, the daughter reports in Cataluna’s affecting playlet, because “Her mind was trained to obey.” Review | As America votes, abortion rights take center stage at a D.C. theater 2022-10-21T04:00:00Z Parker, who plays a trio of Simon characters alongside her husband in the three playlets of “Plaza Suite,” said that speaking Simon’s lines nightly reinforces for her the durability of his impact. With Neil Simon’s papers, Library of Congress just got a lot funnier 2022-04-25T04:00:00Z The playlet is a delirious valentine to those with a level of passion for theater that defies reason — and a pledge of allegiance to the experience of seeing things live. Perspective | Enter Nathan Lane and Savion Glover, as Broadway opens its doors for the first time in almost 13 months 2021-04-04T04:00:00Z “The closest these five playlets come to Beckett is in the refusal of meaning to turn up,” writes McNulty. Newsletter: Essential Arts: How Betye Saar's ironing board shows racism's dirty laundry 2019-09-28T04:00:00Z The playlet is like a jack-in-the-box, startling you with the energy that pops from its short script. Lucas Hnath Lets Actors Fight It Out Onstage 2019-04-15T04:00:00Z “Plaza Suite,” however, is a comedy composed of three playlets all set in the same posh hotel room overlooking Central Park. Neil Simon: How the playwright wrote his own second act and finally won over critics 2018-08-26T04:00:00Z The essentials: This pop-up production from the nomadic Open Fist Theatre Company offers an anthology of 14 playlets exploring our current political and social climate. The 99-Seat Beat: Dreamers, Van Gogh, 'Priscilla, Queen of the Desert' and more 2018-02-16T05:00:00Z “Tics” isn’t as satisfying as the evening’s penny-dreadful playlets, “The Lighthouse Keepers” and “The Final Kiss,” which are fun because they are so single-mindedly sensationalistic. Plays from Molotov and Quotidian show that plunging into history can prove risky 2016-07-27T04:00:00Z Unfortunately, all of the playlets register as desultory footnotes to a classic. Theater reviews: ‘The Maid’s Tragedy’ and ‘Antigone Project: A Play in 5 Parts’ 2016-02-23T05:00:00Z Returning viewers will find the same mix of media parodies, phony commercials and surrealistic playlets solidly grounded in human behavior. 'W/Bob and David' picks up where the fondly remembered 'Mr. Show' left off 2015-11-12T05:00:00Z Gigantic cave trolls and other beasties also crop up, some of them based on Lego's new range of LotR playlets and figures, and all scaled down in terms of physical horror. E3 2012: Lego Lord of the Rings – preview 2012-06-13T15:21:16Z When the curtain was drawn aside and the first act of the playlet began, individuals in the audience became interested in watching their own girls in the troupe. Polly in New York 2011-09-18T02:00:27.103Z That piece took a far more ideological approach than does "The Great Game," whose playlets, by mostly British and American writers, explore the frustrated effort by world powers to exert lasting military control in Afghanistan. Play about Afghan conflicts gets encore performance with Pentagon blessing 2011-01-09T05:24:00Z “It probably goes back to ‘8 by Tenn,’ ” he said, referring to Hartford Stage’s 2003 production of eight playlets by Tennessee Williams. | Connecticut: Hartford Stage?s Theater Starts Its New Look 2010-06-12T03:05:00Z Gradually, by means of simple drawings and gestures, and even charadelike playlets acted out by the weird vegetable-crystal beings, there emerged the general story of the Neptunians and the invaders from Pluto. The Secret of the Ninth Planet The utter childlikeness of this playlet is one of its chief charms. The American Country Girl Wallingford shook his head, refusing even to speculate on the duties of the four named actors in the playlet. Young Wallingford The dozen playlets that form the production are a chronicle of the conflicts waged by superpowers in Afghanistan from 1842 to the present. Play about Afghan conflicts gets encore performance with Pentagon blessing 2011-01-09T05:24:00Z There were songs, buck and wing dancing, a little playlet and a lively boxing bout. The Battleship Boys' First Step Upward or, Winning Their Grades as Petty Officers The playlets collectively called Anatol are only scenes and dialogues between two men or a man and a woman exchanging confidences. The German Classics, v. 20 Masterpieces of German Literature But when the 'playlets' began following one another in unbroken succession, I did not know what to do. Imaginary Interviews A young fellow up in New Hampshire has written a Vaudeville playlet and sent it on for my approval. Continuous Vaudeville A playlet in 1 act, by Franklin Johnston. Three Hats A Farcical Comedy in Three Acts There they saw "Mademoiselle Fifi," a playlet lasting less than half an hour, adapted by the late Oscar Metenier from Guy de Maupassant's short story. Charles Frohman: Manager and Man The short playlet soon came to an end, and still shaking with laughter, the party went out again into the beautiful atmosphere which is found on a spring day in Regent’s Park. Patty's Friends Needless to say that the Shaw playlet and the brilliant Cartel were the events of the occasion. The Cricket He spun his chair about, activated the large entertainment screen, and spent some time watching a playlet. Final Weapon And then, after another little exchange of courtesies, this monthly playlet would end. White Ashes My quaint New England spinster is gone and with her all the point of my playlet. Jane Journeys On His mental playlet no longer closed with James Holden standing alone before the Bench. The Fourth R Perhaps the author of the playlet was a novice in writing headlines, or maybe the director was a know-it-all. Writing the Photoplay The playlets again are almost bound to be just concentrated episodes, probably elemental in theme and certainly elementary in treatment. Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-02-11 Occasionally, when she had been to a film show, Ruth had wondered why she could not write a playlet quite as good as many she saw, and get money for it. Ruth Fielding in Moving Pictures Or, Helping the Dormitory Fund A few minutes later, as playlets follow each other in quick succession on a stage, the scene changed from near tragedy to screaming farce. Fighting in Flanders "Have you seen the playlet Charity at the Vaudeville?" he roared at me. In the Bishop's Carriage On the strength of several opposing yeas, the playlet was booked, and removed after the second performance—a little secret feather which Lilly wore jauntily on a little secret cap. Star-Dust The matter was pleasant enough, but its interest must, I think, have left us indifferent if it had not been for the diversion afforded by the playlets. Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, 1920-02-11 Grimsby did not write a monologue for me, so I must pantomime: you will have to carry the speaking part of our playlet. The Voice on the Wire It may be a comedy playlet or even a serious dramatic playlet, if the star is a fine actor or actress and the name is well known. Writing for Vaudeville By eleven he had seen three more one-act plays and a dramatic playlet. Our Mr. Wrenn, the Romantic Adventures of a Gentle Man "Lovely!" exclaimed Jane, dancing around with a group of barefoot girls who threatened to turn the occasion into a Greek playlet. Jane Allen, Junior My playlet, which I offer as a model to all future writers of farcical comedy, may now, I hope, be read without shock. Overruled Like many other works of mine, this playlet is a piece d'occasion. How He Lied to Her Husband It is in these two box sets—changed in minor details to serve as four sets—that the vaudeville playlet is played. Writing for Vaudeville The most renowned dramatists write some of its playlets. Writing for Vaudeville In Three, playlets that require but shallow sets, and other acts that need not more than twelve feet for presentation, are played. Writing for Vaudeville Unlike the playlet, the monologue does not have flesh-and-blood people on the stage to act the comic situation. Writing for Vaudeville These are the roots from which the playlet springs—the premise of its problem. Writing for Vaudeville Vaudeville is hungering for writers able to make gripping playlets out of themes that never have been treated well. Writing for Vaudeville Or it may be merely a quaint line, like that which ended a very successful playlet which has stuck in my memory, but whose title I have forgotten. Writing for Vaudeville Therefore, go through your playlet carefully and try to discover just what you have not treated with dramatic frankness. Writing for Vaudeville But the most important element that has developed in the playlet of today is the problem, or theme. Writing for Vaudeville The booking managers are only too eager to secure playlets—and now I mean precisely the playlet—which are constructed to develop a problem, either humorous or dramatic. Writing for Vaudeville Imagine how a producer, the actors and an audience—if they let the thing go that far—would laugh at a playlet whose premises were false and whose incidents were silly, because untrue. Writing for Vaudeville We have seen what the playlet is not. Writing for Vaudeville Your playlet must stand on its own legs, and succeed or fail by the test of interest. Writing for Vaudeville Make your playlet grip, that is the thing. Writing for Vaudeville Yet the actual range of themes from which playlet problems may be chosen is not even suggested. Writing for Vaudeville Even with the most famous of names, vaudeville managers—reflecting the desires of their audiences—demand acceptable playlets. Writing for Vaudeville Whatever interests you and your family, and your neighbor and his family, and the man across the street and his wife's folks back home—is a subject for a playlet. Writing for Vaudeville In "Three of a Kind," a comedy playlet produced by Roland West, two crooks fleece a "sucker" and agree to leave the money in a middle room while they sleep in opposite rooms. Writing for Vaudeville This is what the actor may bring to your playlet, and what you, with the greatest caution, may sometimes—though rarely—indicate in your manuscript. Writing for Vaudeville Most certainly you would not write this in the directions for a playlet—the producer would laugh at it and the actor would be indignant. Writing for Vaudeville Of course, I do not mean that you must ignore such conditions when your playlet calls for the use of such characters. Writing for Vaudeville Nevertheless, as a long explanatory speech seems sometimes unavoidable, I devote two or three short paragraphs to what has saved some playlets from absolute failure. Writing for Vaudeville Remember this, and you may be able to save a tiresome scene from ruining the entire effect of your playlet. Writing for Vaudeville By "action," as the word is used here, I mean that the story of the playlet is told by the movements of its characters. Writing for Vaudeville Every funny happening in a playlet is a "scene that must be shown." Writing for Vaudeville I mean that you should not base your playlet entirely on such themes—you should never make such a theme the chief reason of your playlet's being. Writing for Vaudeville Finally, if every other investigation has failed to develop the needed punch, go over your playlet again to see if it is possible that you have erred in the first principle of the art. Writing for Vaudeville You must do as they do—cast your playlet aside and begin anew with new material. Writing for Vaudeville A proper title is one that both names a playlet and concisely suggests more than it tells. Writing for Vaudeville "The Villain Still Pursued Her," tells as plainly as a whole paragraph could that the playlet is a travesty, making fun of the old blood-and-thunder melodrama. Writing for Vaudeville But even to-day every act that carries a full set of scenery—such as a playlet requiring a special set—must carry its own stage-carpenter. Writing for Vaudeville Now, but only for a moment, we must return to the straight line of investigation from which we swerved in considering the structural parts of a playlet plot. Writing for Vaudeville The persons in a playlet are not merely puppets, even if plot is made to predominate. Writing for Vaudeville This latter is the dramatic way, and peculiarly the playlet way. Writing for Vaudeville Because of time-restriction, a playlet must depend for interest upon plot rather than upon character. Writing for Vaudeville The true playlet is marked by the following ten characteristics: 1—A clearly motivated opening—not in soliloquy form. Writing for Vaudeville And second, as the playlet nears its ending there is no need for explanatory words—if the preceding action has been dramatic. Writing for Vaudeville Every new situation rises out of the old, the audience knows it all now, they even foresee the climax, and, in a well constructed playlet, they feel the coming-to-an-end thrill that is in the air. Writing for Vaudeville And it is this speech of the instant that playlet dialogue needs— the short, sharp, seemingly thoughtless but vividly pulsating words of everyday life. Writing for Vaudeville The whole forms a condensed standard for review to refresh your memory before writing, and by which to test your playlet after it is written. Writing for Vaudeville Here, then, we have the four great kinds of playlet, and four out of the many variations that often seem to the casual glance to possess elemental individuality. Writing for Vaudeville If the causes lie in character, you must show the motive of the person of the playlet from whose peculiar character the complication rises like a spring from its source. Writing for Vaudeville This is what creates the playlet's enthralling power—suspense. Writing for Vaudeville Go back through the early moments of your playlet and see if you have not given the whole thing away at the very beginning. Writing for Vaudeville If the story and the characters blend perfectly the result is an example of the highest art, but characters alone will never make a stage story—the playlet writer must end with plot. Writing for Vaudeville In other words, what make the best playlet problems? Writing for Vaudeville Plot is the life blood of the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Precisely as it is impossible to tell anyone how to grasp the dramatic and transplant it into a playlet, is it impossible to show how to seize on character and transplant it to the stage. Writing for Vaudeville Interesting characters are to be found everywhere, and the playlet writer can delineate those he rubs elbows with better than those he does not know well and therefore cannot fully understand. Writing for Vaudeville This is but another way of saying what cannot be too often repeated, that the playlet is plot. Writing for Vaudeville Whatever causes you to stop and think, to laugh or cry, is a playlet problem. Writing for Vaudeville While the last-speech of a playlet is bone of the bone and blood of the blood of plot, the finish line is peculiarly a part of dialogue. Writing for Vaudeville Fit and Becoming Dialogue In playlet dialogue there is as much need of the dramatic spirit as in the playlet plot. Writing for Vaudeville Conversation for conversation's sake is the one thing, above all others that stamps a playlet as in vain. Writing for Vaudeville First, however, I must point out that you should study the vaudeville stage of this week, not of last year or even of last month, before you even entertain a germ idea for a playlet. Writing for Vaudeville When vaudeville presents a very good dramatic offering, 'playlet' is the word used to describe it. Writing for Vaudeville You should inquire of yourself first, "Is this a comedy or a serious playlet I am about to write?" Writing for Vaudeville Nobody ought to write a tragic or even a serious playlet who can write anything else. Writing for Vaudeville In the chapter on the germ idea we saw that the theme or subject of a playlet is a problem that must be solved with complete satisfaction. Writing for Vaudeville Just where you should consider the event that is the crisis of your playlet has its beginning, depends upon how you want to tell it—in other words, it depends upon you. Writing for Vaudeville This age has been styled the age of the short-story and of vaudeville—it is, indeed, the age of the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville But when you have written your playlet and have sold it to a manager who has produced it, your work is not yet done. Writing for Vaudeville But, even if his playlet is so big and dramatic that it admits of a change of scenes, he must conform it to the obvious vaudeville necessity of scenic alternation. Writing for Vaudeville The average number of persons in a playlet is four. Writing for Vaudeville It is for the great majority of such little touches, therefore, that the playwright must depend on the actor and the producer to add to his playlet. Writing for Vaudeville But the "proper sketch," as the English would say—the child of vaudeville and elder half-brother to the playlet—did not make use of other entertainment forms. Writing for Vaudeville In a comedy playlet, the playwright must be a practical joker. Writing for Vaudeville It is in the invention of new situations and new business to fit these situations that the playlet writer finds his reward in production and profit. Writing for Vaudeville There have been many hybrid playlets which have combined tragedy and comedy to give some particular star an opportunity to show versatility in acting. Writing for Vaudeville On the other hand, there have been some serious playlets which have had comedy twists, or a light turn, which brought the curtain down amid laughter that was perfectly logical and in good taste. Writing for Vaudeville That is one of the chief differences between it and the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Every playlet must have a beginning, a middle and an ending. Writing for Vaudeville All three have a place in the playlet, but the last, the dialogue that rises out of and illuminates a situation, is productive of the best results. Writing for Vaudeville Every direction for acting in your playlet must be of such a kind that anyone can convey the meaning—because the emphasis is inherent in the situation. Writing for Vaudeville But a serious playlet must be mighty well done to get over—therein lies a stumbling block sometimes. Writing for Vaudeville Naturally, you are inclined to inquire as a premise to the questions that open this chapter, What are the themes or subjects that offer themselves as best suited to playlet requirements? Writing for Vaudeville Since comedy should be the new writer's aim, the following discussion, while conceived with the broad view to illustrate the writing of the playlet in general, brings into particular prominence the writing of comedy. Writing for Vaudeville From the first speech, through every speech, and in every action, your playlet has moved toward this one event, and now you must bring it out so prominently that everything else sinks into insignificance. Writing for Vaudeville Conceal his identity from every other character and you may construct a fine playlet, but don't conceal his motive from the audience. Writing for Vaudeville Moreover, it should suggest that it is possible that your playlet lacks the required punch—because you have kept something secret that you ought to have disclosed. Writing for Vaudeville A wide range of themes is shown in even these few playlets, isn't there? Writing for Vaudeville In its final analysis a playlet is a pantomime. Writing for Vaudeville To make it a complete unity every little scene demands as careful thought as does the entire playlet. Writing for Vaudeville A playlet may be suggestively defined as a number of minute-long playlets moving vividly one after the other to make a vivid whole. Writing for Vaudeville Why Business is More Productive of Comedy than Dialogue As a playlet is nothing if it is not action, so a comedy playlet is nothing if its comedy does not develop from situations. Writing for Vaudeville Though I stated the problems of all the playlets that were ever presented in vaudeville, the field of playlet-problem possibilities would not be even adequately suggested. Writing for Vaudeville But do not make the mistake of trying to patch together a comedy playlet from the bits of funny stage business you have seen in other acts. Writing for Vaudeville More simple foreshortenings of time are found in many playlets where the effect of an hour-or-more of events is compressed into the average twenty minutes. Writing for Vaudeville Would it then be correct to suppose that "The System" is a "bigger" playlet than "The Lollard"? Writing for Vaudeville As just one suggestion: If your whole playlet hangs on an important message to be delivered, the property man, dressed as a messenger boy, may hand in the message without a word. Writing for Vaudeville Anything, everything, presents itself for a playlet problem—if you can make it human, interesting and alive. Writing for Vaudeville The very nature of the playlet makes it the more difficult to achieve dramatic effect the more the number of characters is reduced. Writing for Vaudeville Yet this is precisely the fault that makes failures of many otherwise good playlets. Writing for Vaudeville Points that Must Be Brought out in the Middle In every scene of your playlet you must prepare the minds of your audience to accept gladly what follows—and to look forward to it eagerly. Writing for Vaudeville One of the most important elements of playlet writing is to let your audience guess what is going to happen—but keep them tensely interested in how it is going to happen. Writing for Vaudeville Because some certain subject or theme has never been treated in a playlet, does not mean that it cannot be. Writing for Vaudeville The fact is, no one can tell us, because a method that would be natural and effective in a given playlet, would very likely be most unnatural and ineffective in another. Writing for Vaudeville All that can be said is that the same dramatic sense with which you have constructed the story of your playlet will carry you forward in the inevitable entrances and exits. Writing for Vaudeville Your playlet theme is your problem, and you must choose for a theme or subject only such a problem as can be "proved" conclusively within the limits of a playlet. Writing for Vaudeville "Art is life seen through a personality," is as true of the playlet as of any other art form. Writing for Vaudeville A large number of playlets have been germinated so. Writing for Vaudeville That is the subject you should choose for your playlet problem. Writing for Vaudeville A list would fill a page, but there are two that should be mentioned because so many playlets built upon them are now being offered to producers without any hope of acceptance. Writing for Vaudeville In showing how a playlet writer gets an idea and how his mind works in developing it, we took the problem of "The System" and developed it into a near-plot form. Writing for Vaudeville But still there would be no plot—and consequently no playlet—if Harry had acknowledged himself beaten after his first futile interview with Angela. Writing for Vaudeville Experiences that Happen to the Playwright Some personal experience which wakens in the mind of the playwright the thought, Here's something that'll make a good playlet, is one of the fruitful sources of playlet-germs. Writing for Vaudeville The ending of a playlet must not leave unfulfilled any promises of the premise, but must fulfill them all satisfyingly. Writing for Vaudeville As in the other short plays, there was no sense of oneness of plot and little feeling of coming-to-the-end that mark a good playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Precisely as the character sketch is not a playlet, the merely narrative sketch is not a true playlet. Writing for Vaudeville The characteristics of a good playlet ending—besides the completeness with which the problem has been "proved" and the satisfyingness with which it all rounds out—are terseness, speed and "punch." Writing for Vaudeville Dozens of other playlets and many long plays that followed The System on the wave of the same timely interest failed. Writing for Vaudeville If the climax is a part of the playlet wherein words may not be squandered, the ending is the place where words—you will know what I mean—may not be used at all. Writing for Vaudeville A safe attitude for a playlet writer to take, is that all of his action shall mimic time reality as closely as his dramatic moment and the time-allowance of presentation will permit. Writing for Vaudeville But it is a fact of importance to note that a three-person playlet can be sold more easily—I am assuming an equal standard of merit—than a four-person playlet. Writing for Vaudeville By this I mean, that in even a playlet in which plot rides the characters, driving them at its will to attain its end, logic must be used. Writing for Vaudeville Here we have, sharply and brilliantly stated, the sole law of drama—whether it be a play in five acts requiring two hours and a half to present, or a playlet taking but twenty minutes. Writing for Vaudeville We have now come to one of the least important elements of the playlet—yet a decorative element which wit and cleverness can make exceedingly valuable. Writing for Vaudeville It is the punch in dialogue that the playlet demands. Writing for Vaudeville With this chapter, the six elements of a successful playlet have been discussed from the angle of exposition. Writing for Vaudeville In the next chapter I shall make use of all this expository material and shall endeavor to show how playlets are actually written. Writing for Vaudeville The playlet is a very definite thing—and yet it is difficult to define. Writing for Vaudeville How many comedy playlets are there to one serious playlet in vaudeville? Writing for Vaudeville If a serious playlet can be made to end with a light touch that is fitting, it will have a better chance in vaudeville. Writing for Vaudeville To do this you must dovetail your incidents into a playlet plot; but how far should you think out your playlet before beginning to set it down on paper? Writing for Vaudeville And now we come to those broad types of playlet which you should recognize instinctively. Writing for Vaudeville He is not likely to stop to inquire whether it is a sketch or a playlet. Writing for Vaudeville There are, of course, certain other divisions into which these four basic kinds of playlet—as well as the full-length play—may be separated, but they are more or less false forms. Writing for Vaudeville I cannot recollect a detective playlet—or three-act play, for that matter—that is not melodramatic. Writing for Vaudeville Forget definitions—forget everything but your playlet and the grip, the thrill, the punch, the laughter of your plot. Writing for Vaudeville These questions are asked successful playlet writers every day, but before we proceed to find their answers, we must have a paragraph or two of definition. Writing for Vaudeville The kind of playlet is largely determined by its characters and their surroundings, and on these there are practically no limits. Writing for Vaudeville Or, indeed, as I have know in many instances, three performers will order a playlet in which there must be characters to fit them all. Writing for Vaudeville I have also known playlets whose big scenes were the original ideas—the opening and finish being fitted to them. Writing for Vaudeville The beginning of a playlet, then, must convey to the audience every bit of information about the characters and their relations to each other that is necessary for clear understanding. Writing for Vaudeville The very nature of many playlets makes it impossible to give them such a curtain. Writing for Vaudeville You need never give thought as to the school to which you are paying allegiance in your playlet; your work will probably be neither better nor worse for this knowledge or its lack. Writing for Vaudeville Therefore, the following may be considered as an important "rule"; a playlet that touches the heart should never end with a trick or a surprise. Writing for Vaudeville This time limit makes it difficult for a playlet to present effectively any story that does not occur in consecutive minutes. Writing for Vaudeville If Shakespere nodded, it is a nod even the legitimate dramatist of today should take to heart, and the playlet writer—peculiarly restricted as to time—must engrave deeply in his memory. Writing for Vaudeville The story is really continuous in time, but the story-time is not equal to the playing-time even though this playlet consumes nearly twice twenty minutes. Writing for Vaudeville Whatever it is, the bit of news appeals to him, and maybe of all men to him only, so he starts thinking about the possibilities it offers for a playlet. Writing for Vaudeville If the lawyer had not been just what he was there would have been no playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Because experience had taught them that a playlet filled with long speeches is likely to be filled with little else. Writing for Vaudeville "Right door," "centre door," "left door," are the natural directions to be found in a playlet manuscript today. Writing for Vaudeville First, vaudeville likes laughter, and while it may be made to like tears, a teary playlet must be exceedingly well done to win. Writing for Vaudeville Therefore, since the short play could not fully satisfy the vaudeville patron's natural desire for drama, the sketch held the vaudeville stage unchallenged until the playlet came. Writing for Vaudeville Then after he has made a success of comedy, or if he is sure he can't write anything but sobby playlets, let him try to make an audience weep. Writing for Vaudeville Of course I do not mean that the last line may be permitted to stray away from the playlet and crack an unrelated joke. Writing for Vaudeville True enough, in really big scenes a character may rise to lofty expression; but of all playlet moments, here sane selection and compression are most vital. Writing for Vaudeville Speed is what the playlet needs, and talk slows the track. Writing for Vaudeville There was a time when the vaudeville sketch was moulded on lines that presented less difficulties and required less technique of the playwright than does the playlet of today. Writing for Vaudeville Here the whole problem of the playlet is solved in a flash. Writing for Vaudeville Thus will a playlet be made to give the singleness of effect that is the height of playlet art. Writing for Vaudeville This we saw has in some cases resulted in the story being considered merely as a vehicle for a personality, often to the detriment of the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Theoretically and, of course, practically too, when it is possible, the characters of a playlet should be as interesting as the plot. Writing for Vaudeville Of questionable profit it would be to you, struggling to waken your playlet into life, to worry about a definition that might read "Here Lies a Polite Comedy." Writing for Vaudeville The playlet writer has even less time than the legitimate dramatist to stamp character. Writing for Vaudeville For much of his characterization—aside from that absolutely inherent in the plot—the playlet writer depends upon the actor. Writing for Vaudeville You have laid down a problem in your playlet, and your audience expects it to fulfill its promise dramatically—that is, by a mimicry of life. Writing for Vaudeville Every successful play, every great playlet, possesses a soul—a character, if you like—that carries a message to its audiences by means which cannot be analyzed. Writing for Vaudeville To sum up: The limits of the playlet are narrow, its requirements are exacting, but within those limits and those requirements you may picture anything you possess the power to present. Writing for Vaudeville Let us now determine definitely what a playlet plot is, consider its structural elements and then take one of the fine examples of a playlet in the Appendix and see how its plot is constructed. Writing for Vaudeville The plot of a playlet is its story. Writing for Vaudeville To vivify cold dramatic incidents is the province of playlet characters. Writing for Vaudeville At the very beginning of a playlet the dialogue must be especially clear, vividly informing and condensed. Writing for Vaudeville Where does a playlet writer get his idea? Writing for Vaudeville Note the seven characteristics of the short-story and compare them with the playlet's ten characteristics. Writing for Vaudeville You will find a surprising similarity between the short-story and the playlet in some points of structure. Writing for Vaudeville You may haunt the vaudeville theatres in a vain search for a playlet that will embody all of these characteristics in one perfect example. Writing for Vaudeville And as they conform more closely to the standards of what a playlet should be, they approach the elements that make for lasting success. Writing for Vaudeville How does he recognize a playlet idea when it presents itself to him? Writing for Vaudeville One or two writers have told me of playlets which came almost entirely organized and motivated into their minds with the first appearance of the germ idea. Writing for Vaudeville With the germ idea the entire playlet may flood into the writer's mind, or come in little waves that rise continually, like the ever advancing tide, to the flood that touches high-water mark. Writing for Vaudeville The clever playlet writer is advertised by the ease—the simplicity—with which he condenses every bit of the exposition into the opening speeches. Writing for Vaudeville The beginning of the action that we have agreed to call the middle of a playlet, is technically termed "the exciting force." Writing for Vaudeville How much of the playlet is achieved when he hits on the idea? Writing for Vaudeville The Lollard Edgar Allan Woolf, who wrote this delightful satirical comedy, is perhaps the most successful writer of playlets in this country. Writing for Vaudeville For years I have contended for the recognition of the playlet as an art form distinct from the play that is short. Writing for Vaudeville And what is true of the peculiar difference of the playlet form is, in a lesser measure, true of the monologue, the two-act, and the one-act musical comedy. Writing for Vaudeville To write vaudeville material is to write monologues and playlets and the other forms of stage speech used in vaudeville acts. Writing for Vaudeville Later on, this most important truth—the very life-blood of stage reality—will be taken up and considered at greater length in the study of the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Some of the most successful popular songs, the most successful playlets, and other vaudeville acts, have been written by men unable to write even a good letter. Writing for Vaudeville In Full Stage are presented all acts such as acrobatic acts, animal turns, musical comedies, playlets and other pretentious acts that require deep sets and a wide playing space. Writing for Vaudeville He may bear much of the burden of entertainment, as in a playlet, or none of the responsibility, as in the average dumb act. Writing for Vaudeville The vaudeville playlet and the play that is merely short, are separate art forms, they are precisely and as distinctly different as the short-story and the story that is merely short. Writing for Vaudeville Let us take these dramatic forms in their order of widest difference from the playlet and give to each the explanatory word it deserves. Writing for Vaudeville For instance, if a playlet is laid in an artist's studio there are all sorts of odds and ends that would lend a realistic effect to the scene. Writing for Vaudeville When a playlet—either comedy or straight dramatic—is accepted for production, it is customary, although not an invariable rule, that an advance royalty be paid "down." Writing for Vaudeville An improper title, first, is one that does not precisely fit a playlet as a name; or second, that tells too much. Writing for Vaudeville Make your title really express the personality of your playlet. Writing for Vaudeville Again like the full-evening play, the one-act play that is merely short paints its characters in greater detail than is possible in the playlet, where the strokes are made full and broad. Writing for Vaudeville You need never worry over-long about a title for your playlet if you put the emphasis in your own mind upon the fact that your title is an advertisement. Writing for Vaudeville The work of the author of a one-act comedy is not over until, after several weeks of playing, his playlet has been so reshaped and altered by him that not a single dull spot remains. Writing for Vaudeville To sum up: While no two writers ever have written and never will write a playlet in precisely the same way, the wise beginner chooses for his first playlet a comedy theme. Writing for Vaudeville Your germ idea you express in a single short sentence which you consider as the problem of your playlet, to be solved logically, clearly and conclusively. Writing for Vaudeville That Ethel Barrymore took "The Twelve Pound Look" into vaudeville does not prove, however, that the curtain-raiser and the vaudeville playlet are like forms. Writing for Vaudeville After you have thought out your playlet, you set down so much of it as you feel is necessary in the form of a scenario. Writing for Vaudeville This remarkable little tragedy was produced for the Orpheum Circuit by Mr. Charles Feleky, who declares it to be "the best tragic playlet I have produced." Writing for Vaudeville George V. Hobart is reported to have had a variously-quoted number of playlets playing at the same time, each one of which returned him a weekly royalty of $100 a week. Writing for Vaudeville Another playlet writer was paid one hundred dollars a week for one act, and only twenty dollars a week for another. Writing for Vaudeville As in the past, the curtain-raiser of today usually is more kin to the long play than to the playlet. Writing for Vaudeville On the other hand, Porter Emerson Brown is quoted as saying: "The work of writing a playlet is nearly as great as writing a three-act play, and the returns cannot be compared." Writing for Vaudeville In considering the "business" of the playlet, we have come to the place where it would seem that writing must be left behind and the function of the producer entered upon. Writing for Vaudeville How would they know he was connected with the other characters in the playlet if you neglected to tell them beforehand? Writing for Vaudeville It is often the sign of a dramatic mind, and of a healthy problem too, that the playlet changes and develops as the theme is carefully considered. Writing for Vaudeville Historically, however, the curtain-raiser stands in much the same position in the genealogy of the playlet that the forms discussed in the preceding section occupy. Writing for Vaudeville Very likely it is a big playlet, if another sketch has not been presented earlier on the bill. Writing for Vaudeville These examples I have cited to demonstrate that the return from the playlet is a most variable quantity. Writing for Vaudeville Go over your playlet with the eye of a relentless critic and make sure that you have not mixed your genres, which only in the rarest cases can be done effectively. Writing for Vaudeville Other Title Considerations A short title seems to be the playlet fashion today; but tomorrow the two- or three-word title may grow to a four- or five-word name. Writing for Vaudeville This form of sketch seldom rises into the playlet class. Writing for Vaudeville Remember, here, that a great playlet can be played without a single word being spoken and still be vividly clear to everyone. Writing for Vaudeville When you have trimmed your playlet by cutting off all the trimmings, your thoughts naturally turn to a title. Writing for Vaudeville Finally, when your playlet is finished, you decide on a proper title. Writing for Vaudeville |
| 随便看 |
英语例句辞典收录了117811条英语例句在线翻译词条，基本涵盖了全部常用单词及词组的例句翻译及用法，是英语学习的有利工具。