Plot begins early in story; doesn't compress action; expands it. People, places, and events proliferate. Can cover many locations over many years. Lots of locations and characters possible. Short scenes often happen.
There may be a parallel plot or subplot. Parallel plot or subplot replaces compression. Parallel plot reinforces main plot. Juxtaposition and contrast occur. Short scenes alternate with longer scenes. Public scenes alternate with private scenes. We move from one group to an opposing group.
Comic scenes alternate with serious scenes. The overall effect is cumulative. Significant Periods of Episodic Structure. England, late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries--Shakespeare, Marlowe.
Spain, late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries--Lope de Vega, Calderon de la Barca. Germany, late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries--Goethe, Lessing, Schiller, Buchner.
No law says a play has to be purely episodic or climactic. Sophocles is more climactic because it begins late in story, etc. Ibsen's Cherry Orchard is climactic but includes 15 characters and an extended period of time. A repetition or reenactment of a proceeding or transaction which has acquired special meaning. National Anthym. Catholic mass. Fraternity initiation. Olympic ceremony. Ritual has structure. Actions are repeated in set fashion with beginning, middle and end. Natural progression of events.
Active, not passive; doesn't get boring. Works well in theatre productions to induce energy. Related to rituals. When a play like Waiting for Godot has no normal structure, repeating events substitutes. Give audience a framework to work with. Using a series of actions or episodes for structure. Individual segments strung together like beads on. Sometimes a central theme holds the serial together. Musical revue with songs by same author or on same theme. Sometimes little or no connection between parts.
Master of Ceremonies often ties the parts of a program together. An evening of one acts is an example of serial structure. Special Structures. Avant-Garde groups question long-held beliefs about theater. Theater of past not relevant to today's problems. Rather than condense the action, an episodic theatrical play expands the action broadly. Alternatively, climactic structure involves a condensed narrative that is focused on fewer characters over a smaller number of locations.
The play fences has a climatic structure. A play with a climatic structure is characterized by restricted elements such as few characters,few play locations and a short time span for performance. In the play fences there is only one location which is the backyard of a house. An act is a part of a play defined by elements such as rising action, climax, and resolution. A scene normally represents actions happening in one place at one time, and is marked off from the next scene by a curtain, a black-out, or a brief emptying of the stage.
This means that every chapter has a little part of the story to tell. And as soon as the chapter has told its part of the story, it should end.
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