Creating Dramatic Characters Through Dialogue: A Generative Playwriting Workshop with Diane Tasca (via Zoom)

Dramatic dialogue—what characters say and how they say it--forms the substance of  every play—much more so than stage directions. Dialogue reveals the nature and needs of each character, the conflict that drives the play’s action, and, ultimately, the ideas the playwright wants to express in the work. So how do playwrights use dialogue to create their characters? In this workshop you will look at the elements of dialogue (word choice, level of diction, sentence length, pauses, and more) in several scenes, hunting for clues about the characters’ identities, personalities, objectives, and problems. And then you will create new characters of your own, inventing dialogue that reveals the essence of each character.  

Diane Tasca founded the Pear Theatre in California, serving as Artistic Director for 15 years. She has written a half dozen full-length plays, along with numerous short plays, and has given dramaturgical support to many playwrights at…