There was a young Miller frantically scampering around the dusty highway trying to claw all the original script pieces back into his hands. It resulted in yellow line-ruled paper scattered all over the road. As he was driving in an open-roofed car along Texas roadway the yellow line-ruled paper was gripped by wind and flown from the car. Miller was handwriting the play on yellow line-ruled paper.

That Championship Season, recipient of the 1973 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, was written by Jason Miller while he was working summer theater in Texas. I started the seminar by telling one of my favorite playwright stories. Nobody is wondering whether the playwright first etched the script into rotting wood bark, right? People are watching a performance on stage. Why should script formatting even matter? It’s not like an audience is seeing the playwright’s method of text entry. And the more of these standards you use and the more of these standards you adhere to the more acceptance you garner as a Submitting Playwright. So again, the rejoinder, before you delve through my missive, is that there is no single, go-to standard script format standard. The seminar teaser:įor everyone that’s wanted to learn best practices for preparing your script in theatrical format, this is the seminar for you! Sam Graber will show you how to create styles and templates so that your script has that look. Fun and laughs included. During November 2014 I first shared my assembled answer to what standard script format is supposed to look like at the Playwrights’ Center, as part of their ongoing seminar series. I would like to try and assemble those standards pieces for you here. So here comes the chief culprit of theatrical mischief (me) to assail your cold-shocked minds with some warming news, which is that while there isn’t a universal, inviolable pronouncement of proper script format governing theater, there are various format standardswhich have become generally accepted. Now that the Minneapolis weather has turned from a scorching positive fifteen to a balmy ten below in the shade, it’s time to huddle together and posit the great question no doubt rattling the mind of all grant-seeking playwrights…the ever-present question being…Ĭan someone please tell me what standard script format is supposed to look like?!?!?! This basic template created in Microsoft Word can be used as a starting point for your next script.

One person play scripts