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DEFINITION OF STORY, PLOT, AND THEME IN A PLAY

Story:

“The telling of a happening or connected series of happenings, whether true or fictitious.”

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/story_1

The story of a play is the narrative, that is, what the play is about. Sometimes there is confusion, since we generally talk about the story of a play when we really mean the plot or what happens in the play.

Examples of story:

In Shakespeare's MACBETH, the title character kills a king and suffers grave consequences for his actions.

In Lorraine Hansberry's A RAISIN IN THE SUN, the Younger family has to make a decision about what to do with the life insurance money they receive after the death of the family's patriarch.

In David Mamet's AMERICAN BUFFALO, three friends plan to steal a coin collection from a man in the neighborhood.

In David Valentin's ISABELLA, three homeless people, two of whom are drug addicts, and one of whom is a 16-year old writer, come to terms with their lives, and try to change their circumstances.

Plot:

Plot is “the sequence of events, or the arrangement and order of scenes in a play.” Plot is how the story is told; it is not the story itself. The playwright chooses what the characters onstage will say and do in order to tell the story. The onstage dialogue and action is the plot. It is the who, what ,when, where, but not necessarily the why.

Examples of plot:

In MACBETH, the play opens with three witches planning to meet Macbeth later that night. In the next scene, King Duncan encounters a bloody soldier who tells Duncan of Macbeth's bravery on the battlefield; next, the three witches encounter Macbeth and prophesy to him that he will become king. And the plot continues on from there.

A RAISIN IN THE SUN opens in the living room of a tenement house where, after the death of the family patriarch, the five members of the Younger family are waiting for a life insurance check to arrive. They begin to discuss how they will spend the money, with each family member talking about what they want to do with it. And the plot moves forward from there.

In the first scene of AMERICAN BUFFALO, Bobby, a young drug addict, enters Don Dubrow's junk shop on the south side of Chicago and begins to talk about a poker game that occurred the previous night. Teach, a friend of Don's, bursts into the shop and begins to rant about two of the people who were at that previous night's poker game. And the plot continues to unfold from there.

In the first scene of ISABELLA, a homeless man, Eddie, enters with a sack of stolen mail, and tells Karen, his girlfriend, and Izzy, Karen's daughter to open the envelopes and check for money. In the next scene, we see Eddie trying to convince Karen that they need to move from their alleyway because Eddie owes money to a drug dealer who has threatened to kill all three of them. And the plot continues on from there.

Theme:

The theme of a play is what the playwright is trying to say about the larger world, or about the human condition. It is sometimes referred to as the “moral” of the play. Theme may sometimes have a moralistic tone, but that is not a requirement. Theme can be somewhat personal; two people may view the theme of a play differently; they may see different things in the words and actions onstage. Generally, however, the theme of a play is clear to an audience because the playwright has made it so, either through title of the play or through specific action and dialogue in the play.

Examples of theme:

In MACBETH, Shakespeare may have been trying to say that overwhelming ambition will lead to tragic and irreversible deeds.

In A RAISIN IN THE SUN, Ms. Hansberry may have been trying to say that you should always follow your dreams, no matter how unlikely it seems that they will come true.

In AMERICAN BUFFALO, David Mamet may have been trying to say that mixing friendship with business can lead to misunderstandings and violence.

In ISABELLA, David Valentin may have been trying to say that no matter what you do in life, there are certain situations that are so adverse that there can never be a happy ending.