SCENE ONE.
A thirty year-old person walks out of crowd. Takes off the sneakers. Sets them neatly there with socks. Climbs over the rail. Dives, three seconds/seventy feet, to swim. Dies.
Notice that the opening description uses the Action element in this form.
Stage direction, however, uses a parenthetical element and is formatted as below.
This is one type of format for dramatic stage play. You can modify the elements any way you want by going to Format>Elements.
(A SILENCE.)
PASSERBY I have something to tell you.
PASSERBY But…
PASSERBY I love you.
(PASSERBY HOLDS SOME BREATH.
SCRIBBLES.)
BYSTANDER Does any body know who it is?
BYSTANDER Did you see the jump?
BYSTANDER Was it a guy or a girl?
(Script Notes have important information much
like the dialogue above. Read it to see what it says.)
BYSTANDER I said the last thing before it happened. I said excuse me.
(LOOKS AROUND. NO BODY NOTICED. HOLDS SOME BREATH.
A SILENCE.)
(THE PEOPLE GATHER. HOLD SOME BREATH. TOGETHER AND BEGIN.)
BYSTANDER I said the last thing before it happened. I said excuse me.
(STILL SCRIBBLING.)
PASSERBY [What you must think.]
(STILL SCRIBBLING.)
BYSTANDER Apparently some body dove off over there.
BYSTANDER Where’d it land?
(LOUDLY, URGENTLY.)
VOICE BELOW Some body help us.
(LOUDLY, URGENTLY.)
BYSTANDER I don’t know. What to do.
PASSERBY [I don’t know what to do.]
BYSTANDER I just told my husband this makes me sick.
BYSTANDER Did they jump off or fall?
(LOUDLY, URGENTLY.)
VOICE BELOW Some body help us.
(LOUDLY, URGENTLY.)
PASSERBY Every act of the artist is an act of cutting AND gluing.
CHORUS
(THE S’S DANCE TOGETHER AS PRAYERS.)
(WHEN ART IS WORKING WE)
(FORGET THE CHISEL SHAVING)
(PARTS OF THE BODY AWAY)
(WHICH ARE NOT THE SLIGHTEST PARTS)
(A PAUSE.)
BYSTANDER I couldn’t imagine doing that.
BYSTANDER Can’t get nine one-one from here . . .
CHORUS
(BUT YOU KNOW YOU KNEW CREATION)
(REQUIRES LONELINESS ONCE IT STARTS)
BYSTANDER We’ve got to go with this boy to a phone.
RESCUER Must have been going two hundred miles an hour at the water. Only twelve foot deep.
BYSTANDER The rescue unit said they don’t know where it is.
(GETTING DARK.)
PASSERBY Every act of cutting moral.
The voice below appears up here. A Body. See young woman with purple streaked hair. Face red. Hair wet. Clothes wet from the suit beneath.
(SNIFFS THE AIR. CRAWLS TO RAIL. POV.
OVER EDGE. AFTER THIS. WALKS TO CAR.
DRIVES UP/DOWN THE ROAD. OUT OF SIGHT.)
BYSTANDER Excuse me. Do you know the guy that jumped?
PASSERBY Every act of gluing creation.
(COMPLETELY DARK. THE RESCUE UNIT’S
GONE. EVERY BODY IS BUT ONE.)
ManuFactured Artists 