Write a play of your choice in English in about 100 words.
Answers
DECOMPOSITION
Cast of Characters
Perry Pippin (Teacher): The teacher of a playwriting class. A dissolute former
success. He had one successful musical ten years earlier; he has this gig
teaching playwriting at a local community center after the original
(serious) playwright had to drop out at the last minute.
Helen (Student 1): A mousy accountant who is writing an earnest play about an
accounting scandal.
John (Student 2) Young husband whose marriage is falling apart. His play is a
tortured love story.
Christine (Student 3): Professor of Anthropology/History who has decided to turn some
of her research into a play about a woman who is studying apes in the
African jungle.
Anastasia (Student 4):She is the Teacher’s fan. She has joined the class mostly to give
him enthusiastic support.
Time
The present.
Synopsis
A diverse group of aspiring playwrights has gathered at the local community
center for a class by the local theater auteur. When the teacher is replaced at the last
minute by Perry Pippin – a dissolute character with one successful musical in his past, the
class takes an unexpected turn. (Please note: there is no actual music in this piece,
although Perry does chant his way through a few lyrics.)
SETTING: Classroom or conference room at a suburban community center.
AT RISE: Four chairs are in a diagonal line. Christine and John are already seated.
Anastasia enters.
ANASTASIA
Is this the class for writing musicals?
CHRISTINE
What? No – this is the playwriting seminar.
ANASTASIA
That’s it.
CHRISTINE
Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you said musicals.
ANASTASIA
Didn’t you get the email?
(At this moment, the teacher, Perry, arrives, followed
immediately by Helen. Perry conducts the class standing –
he is very animated.)
PERRY
Hello, class. By way of introduction, I’d like to go around the room. Each of you should
introduce yourselves and give a short synopsis of the piece you are writing.
(He nods to Helen, who is still getting settled.)
HELEN
Me? Oh, okay. Well, I’m Helen. I’m an accountant. I took a course on accounting
ethics last year, and one of the case studies was just fascinating, I thought it would make
a great play. It’s about the use of stock options in CEO compensation.
(Perry nods to Christine next.)
CHRISTINE
I am Christine. I am a Professor of History at the University, where I specialize in the
History of Anthropology. My play is a one-woman show about an anthropologist who is
in her eighteenth month observing apes in the African jungle without any human contact.
It takes place entirely inside her tent, and mostly inside her head.
hope it helped