Like a lot of forms of writing, plays have a specific way of being formatted. It varies depending on whether you are reading the play, or whether it is an actor's copy. The format scene in books is only slightly different from an actor's copy, but for this guide I will be using the general form I have learned, which is the script, or actor's version.
For the beginning of the play, you need your character, time, and setting. Here is a basic example:
Characters:
JOAN is sixteen. MARY's friend. Likes to sleep with a teddy-bear, to wears socks with flipflops, to eat white bread. Dressed for a sleep-over.
MARY is fourteen. Thinks JOAN's teddy-bear is stupid. Dressed for sleep-over.
Time:
Summer. Early Evening.
Setting:
MARY's birthday party.
This is something you would put right at the beginning of the play. It helps give your actors, and your director, and idea of what the play is about before they start reading this. It also allows a bit of time to figure out what wardrobe might be, and what props they may need, depending on what happens in the story. Also, notice how the sentences aren't complete sentences? Plays tend to do this a lot. With descriptions (and stage directions, as I will show later) plays tend to be as brief and to the point as possible, so much so that they violate what we know to be basic grammar, and use incomplete sentences. Just don't go overboard; you still need to make sense.
As I said about the way to write a play varies. So if you learned it a different way, or have seen it differently, don't bite me! Here is an example of what the dialogue would look like.
(NOTE: When trying to guess how long your play will be, allow approx. one minute for each page.)
[MARY is sitting on her bed eating cake. JOAN is sitting on the floor with her teddy-bear in her lap.]
MARY: Why did you have to bring your bear with you? That is the stupidest thing ever.
JOAN: Why would you say that? You know I like it...
MARY: [Throws her cake at JOAN] Because I hate you!
I would hope your play doesn't have characters as bipolar as Mary... or as submissive as Joan. Really, who would keep a friend like that?
Besides that, though, you can see the basic elements of how to write a script. The one thing that I know most people don't do, that I do, is italicize the stage directions. This is something I picked up from reading plays, and I should probably stop doing it. You will notice that each characters name is capitalized, even in the stage directions. This helps your actors know when it is their part. The first stage direction sets the scene, and the others show actions. I won't go into how to write a good play, so I won't start rambling about how to use stage directions, but if you're interested, PM me! You will also notice that the stage directions are incomplete sentences. They're also in present tense.
I keep my stage directions with the dialogue, unless the person who is doing the action isn't the one speaking, or if no one is speaking, or it really has nothing to do with the dialogue. For instance, in my play, Flower's for the Wake I had to have my characters leave. But there was no point in putting that stage direction with the dialogue, so I gave it its own line, and wrote it like the first stage direction.
If you have any questions about the format, or would like to know more, feel free to PM me. A book a suggest to young playwrights in the making is The Playwright's Handbook by Frank Pike and Thomas G. Dunn.
Good luck with your plays!
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