I Do: Intro

Processes in Playwriting: How a Play is Born

An Honors Thesis by Christy Melson
April 15, 1999
Advisor: Dr. Ralf Remshardt

INTRODUCTION

The creation of an original play takes the playwright on a journey through her imagination. She starts off with a vague notion of a dramatic story, and has to work to shape it into a finished play. The process of creating this play from the early stages is one of much revision, and re-thinking of ideas, as well as receiving feedback from peers and mentors. The playwright must filter through the feedback she receives and choose the ideas that work for her. She then studies these ideas, works with them, and makes them her own, adding them to the collection of tools she has in creating an original work. This paper explores the process that one playwright went through, documenting her progress from the embryonic stages of the play through the end result of an original play.
This paper documents the process of writing I Do, the play up for consideration for my graduating with High/Highest honors. Once my advisor and I decided how exactly I should document my progress, I started making journal entries any time I worked on my play. For anything from January 1 through February 24th, I reviewed my papers and the work I had done, and pieced together my process during that period.
Included in this document are the following:

Journal entries of my progress and process in writing this play

I Do, the original play I am submitting for consideration (Appendix 1)

A copy of the original pitch of the play idea for my playwriting class (Appendix 2)

A copy of the original scenario I submitted at the beginning of my playwriting process (Appendix 3)

Copies of one selection of text in various stages of the writing process, to demonstrate the progress and changes made throughout the process (Appendix 4)