Beginning (Short Analysis): Three Questions
1. How is this play different from actuality?
2. Why is this play different in this way?
3. What is this play about?
Final Analysis (Each step builds upon the preceding step. So Step #1 builds upon the above information)
1. What is this play about? What in human nature is at the center of the play?
2. How does the play use its material?
Space: confinement, isolation, representational/presentational, fluid/fixed/floating, spatial tensions
Time: progress, segments, shifts
Tone
Context
How does it open to audience?
Nature of the world of the play
Nature of the characters of the play
Character tensions
Illusion/communion
Structure: concentrated, confined
3. What is the essential tension?
Encounter
Actions: context, inciting incident
4. What is the driving force?
Resistance
Crisis
Climax
Polarity
5. Do general patterns emerge?
6. What is the effect?
What is the audience's mood at the conclusion of the play?
What are they reflecting upon?
What is their state of mind?
What was their initial impression at the beginning of the play (performance) and what is their final impression? In this a polarity?
Director's Chart (Example)
SOURCES*
Unit (organic, beats, scenes)
Effect
Scenery/Properties
Costumes/Make-up
Sound
Lighting
Activity
*SOURCES are of the "effect" in column #2.