Aristotle's Three Unities

Play Structure

*Borrowed from Mr. Bradley Craddock, Creative Writing teacher at Rochester School of the Arts. Mr. Craddock is also an actor and published writer. These are excellent playwriting tips, so please read carefully, underline parts that are especially interesting or new to you, and use this to help guide your writing.

Ever wonder about the spelling of playwright? Why not playwrite? Well, it's because a "wright" is someone who builds. The idea is that a playWRIGHT carefully constructs and builds a play. We craft plays, not just write them.

Way back in ancient times, Aristotle (that famous Greek philosopher) wrote a book called the poetics about how to write a play. 

**He said that every play needs the following elements:

1. Plot
2. Character
3. Thought (by which he meant theme)
4. Spectacle (special effects, props, costumes, scenery, etc.)
5. Diction (effective dialogue)
6. Song (music)

Apart from #6, all plays usually include these things. Musicals, film, and opera incorporate all of the elements rather effectively

THREE UNITIES

Unity of time: limits the supposed action to the duration, roughly, of a single day

Unity of place: limits the setting to one general locality.

unity of action:  limits action to a single set of incidents which are related as cause and effect, "having a beginning, a middle, and an end.

HW: In your journal, please reflect on each unity, asking yourself, "why might it be important to follow such a guideline" (especially for a beginning playwright)