Elements of Drama - Teleplay

Elements of Drama Teleplay

"The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" by Rod Serling

Teleplay

a story written to be produced through and experienced by an audience using the medium of television

What's the same?

-narrator

-setting, characters, conflict

-plot

-theme

What's different?

-written in the form of a script

-includes camera angles and character actions in the stage directions

-meant to be watched rather than read

The Twilight Zone 

The Twilight Zone is an American television series. It is a series of unrelated stories containing drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, and/or horror, often concluding with an unexpected twist. A popular and critical success, it introduced many Americans to serious science-fiction and abstract ideas through television and also through a wide variety of Twilight Zone literature.

Rod Serling  1924-1975

In the early 1950s, Rod Serling went from a boring job in Cincinnati, Ohio, to becoming a televisionwriter in New York City. Broadcast television shows had just begun, and Rod Serling first wrote for a live half-hour show called Lux Video Theatre.  From there he went on to create and produce the biggest hit show of the decade in The Twilight Zone. His most famous episode, “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street,” was written when people were being accused of being members of the communist party.

The theme of “Monsters” is not to accuse people without first having evidence of wrongdoing.

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

37. PAN SHOT – ACROSS THE STREET DOWN THE ROW OF HOUSES 37.

Each is the same in general style, the front porch, the gliders, the rest of it. Then suddenly the CAMERA STOPS on the last house in the line. There's a spot light set up on the porch and even in the daylight we can see it shining.

Which element of drama is highlighted in this stage direction?

• character

• theme

• setting

• plot

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

DON

And he never did come out to look at that thing that flew overhead. He wasn't even interested.

(he turns to the faces in the group, his face taut and serious)

Why? Why didn't he come out with the rest of us to look?

CHARLIE

He always was an odd ball. Him and his whole family. Real odd ball.

Which element of drama is highlighted in the stage direction?

• plot

• resolution

• setting

• character

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

41. DIFFERENT ANGLE – THE GROUP 41.

As they suddenly start toward the house. In this brief fraction of a moment they take the first step toward performing a metamorphosis that changes people from a group into a mob. They begin to head purposefully across the street toward the house at the end.

Which element of drama is highlighted in this stage direction?

• plot

• audience

• character

• setting

Structure of a Drama

• Act - the major divisions of a drama (use Romans numerals)

• Scene - smaller divisions within an Act of a drama (use Arabic numerals)

• Dialogue - lines of conversation spoken by the characters in a play *Words spoken by the characters*

• Stage Directions - instructions in the text of a play (in parentheses or italics) that tell how a character should move or act or how something should look *Describes the actions of the characters*

• Narrator - speaks directly to the audience to help explain what is going on in the play by giving background, context, or elaboration

Direct Characterization in a Drama

• is clearly stated in the text of the play

• might be spoken by the narrator

• can be found in the stage directions

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from Act I of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

DON

(picking up the cue)

Sure. That's the kind of thing – like sun spots. They raise cane with radio reception all over the world. And this thing being so close – why there's no telling the sort of stuff it can do.

(he wets his lips, smiles nervously)

Go ahead, Charlie. You and Steve go into town and see if that isn't what's causing it all.

What do the stage directions tell the reader about Don’s feelings?

• He feels threatened by Steve and Charlie.

• He may be more worried about the flash than he is admitting.

• He is confident about the cause of the power outage.

• He knows that Tommy is right but is keeping his feelings a secret.

Multiple Choice

Which excerpt from The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street is an example of direct characterization?

• Don approaches the group, stops a few feet away to stare toward the house, then looks back toward the group.

• The screen door opens and Goodman comes out, a man in his early forties who first greets them smiling and then letting the smile fade as he sees the faces.

• As the people exchange looks. They've all arrived there on an emotion and when hit with a simple question of logic they can't answer.

• Taking in little knots of people who stand around talking in low voices. At the end of each conversation, they look toward Les Goodman's house.

Indirect Characterization in a Drama

• is not clearly stated in the text (must make an inference)

• can be shown by characters' reactions to events

• can be seen in characters' thoughts, dialogue, and actions

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

GOODMAN

Now I suppose that's supposed to incriminate me! The light goes on and off. That really does it, doesn't it? (he looks around the faces of the people.)

I just don't understand this— (he wets his lips, looking from face to face.)

Look, you all know me. We've lived here five years. Right in this house. We're no different than any of the rest of you. We're no different at all. Really . . . this whole thing is just . . . just weird—

The writer of this excerpt uses...

• direct characterization to show that Les Goodman is an alien in disguise.

• direct characterization to show that Les Goodman is nervous.

• indirect characterization to show that Les Goodman is an alien in disguise.

• indirect characterization to show that Les Goodman is nervous.

Making Predictions

• read the text

• look for clues (foreshadowing) about what will happen next

• make a prediction about what will happen next

Multiple Choice

Read the excerpt from The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

GOODMAN

She's crazy. Look I can explain that. Please . . . I can really explain that . . . she's making it up anyway.

(then he shouts,) I tell you she's making it up!

Now he takes a step toward the crowd and they back away from him. He walks down the steps after them and they continue to back away. Now he's suddenly and completely left alone and he looks like a man caught in the middle of a menacing circle as we take a SLOW FADE TO BLACK:

Based on the clues in this excerpt, what will most likely happen next?

• The neighbors will become suspicious of Woman One.

• The neighbors will remain suspicious of Goodman.

• The neighbors will apologize to Goodman and leave.

• The neighbors will get their electricity back.

Multiple Choice

Which excerpt from The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street best foreshadows the idea that the residents of Maple Street are becoming a dangerous mob?

• The crowd picks this up again and with it their suspicions come back with a rush. The murmur becomes a loud chant filling the air with accusations and demands for action. Two of the men pass Don right up the steps. Goodman flattens himself against the screen door.

• “There's something you can do, Charlie. You could go home and keep your mouth shut. You could quit strutting around like a self-appointed hanging judge and just climb into bed and forget it.”

• “Well . . . sometimes I go to bed late at night. A couple of times . . . a couple of times I'd come out on the porch and I'd see Mr. Goodman here in the wee hours of the morning standing out in front of his house . . . looking up at the sky.”

• "That don't prove a thing. Any guy who'd spend his time lookin' up at the sky early in the morning—well there's something wrong with that kind of a person. There's something that ain't legitimate."