Page 110 - SpringBoard_Writing_Workshop_Grade8_Flipbook

2. As a class, brainstorm ways that you can modernize the script excerpt from A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the class-constructed script, and create a list of possible strategies.
Possible responses: change the characters’ names, perhaps using characters from a popular film or television show, change the setting to a location in your school or community, update Shakespeare’s language by using modern slang and insults and translating some of the archaic diction (thee, whereto . . .).
3. Work with your class to make a plan for your script’s ideas, structure, and use of language by answering the following questions:
Ideas: How will we transform the characters in our script? How will we establish and convey setting? What key dialogue will we need to include in order to convey setting, develop characters, and tell the story? Will we use narration such as a prologue, or rely solely on dialogue?
Structure: What are the key elements of our story’s plot—beginning, middle, and end? How will we provide exposition? What is our conflict? What complications will we need to include? How will we sequence events and resolve the conflict?
Use of Language: What stage directions and dialogue cues for tone and blocking could we include? How will we use diction and imagery to create a mood? How else can we engage our audience and convey humor? What other script writing conventions will we need to follow?
Drafting the Script
4. Working with your teacher and classmates, create a draft by transforming the script excerpt. Make a copy of the draft on a separate page.
Writing Workshop 9 • Script Writing 9
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