Introduction to Drama
Senior 3 · English
Introduction to Drama
Lesson 2 of 5
30 min
Let's begin
Every play, from a five-minute sketch to a three-hour tragedy, is built from the same elements: characters who want something, the words they speak, a plot that moves, and a place and time where it happens. At the centre is always a conflict. Read this short play, in which one stone on a hillside threatens to divide a family, then take it apart element by element. At the end of the lesson you learn the language rules for turning a story into a script.
A short play in one scene, written for this lesson. The family is imagined.
THE BOUNDARY STONE
Characters: NDOLI, a farmer, about fifty · KAMANZI, his son, sixteen · MUKESHIMANA, Ndoli's younger sister, a widow · MUTONI, her daughter, fifteen
A field on a hillside, just after dawn. A large stone marks the boundary between two plots. Birds are singing. NDOLI stands by the stone. He looks around, then pushes the stone a metre towards his sister's side. He straightens up, breathing hard. KAMANZI enters upstage carrying a water container, and stops.
KAMANZI: Papa? What are you doing?
NDOLI: (too quickly) Nothing. The stone was loose. The rain moved it.
KAMANZI: The rain moved it uphill?
NDOLI: Don't be clever. Go and fetch the water.
(KAMANZI does not move.)
KAMANZI: Grandfather put that stone there. You told me so yourself: "Where the stone stands, our land ends and your aunt's begins."
NDOLI: Your grandfather had two children and one field. Now I have five children and the same half of that field. Your aunt has one daughter. Is that fair?
(MUKESHIMANA and MUTONI enter downstage left, carrying hoes. MUKESHIMANA stops and stares at the stone.)
MUKESHIMANA: Ndoli. That stone was there yesterday. (pointing) There.
NDOLI: The rain …
MUKESHIMANA: The rain does not carry stones uphill, brother.
(Silence. KAMANZI looks at the ground. MUTONI moves closer to her mother.)
MUTONI: (quietly) Mama, let's go to the sector office. The land is registered. They'll have the map.
NDOLI: (turning on her) Nobody is going to any office! Do you want the whole hill to say that Ndoli is a thief?
MUKESHIMANA: (softly) Then don't be one.
(A long pause. NDOLI looks at his son. KAMANZI meets his eyes, then looks away.)
NDOLI: You think I'm wrong.
KAMANZI: I think you're tired, Papa. And worried. But yes, I think you're wrong.
(NDOLI walks slowly to the stone. He kneels and, with great effort, pushes it back to its place. When he stands, he cannot look at his sister.)
NDOLI: Five children, Mukeshimana. Five.
MUKESHIMANA: I know. (She lays her hoe on the ground beside his.) Then let us find another way. Together.
(The lights fade on the two hoes lying side by side.)
Definition
Glossary
| Element | What it is | In the play |
|---|---|---|
| Characters | the people in the play; the protagonist is the main character, and the antagonist is the person or force against them | Ndoli is the protagonist; his own fear and pride act against him, and his sister opposes his action. |
| Dialogue | the words the characters speak to each other; it reveals character and moves the plot | Short, sharp lines ("Then don't be one.") show Mukeshimana's calm strength. |
| Plot | the series of events, built round a conflict | A stone is moved, discovered, argued over and returned. |
| Setting | the place and time of the action, shown by the set and stage directions | A hillside field at dawn; the boundary stone is both a prop and a symbol. |
| Conflict | the struggle at the centre of the play | Ndoli against his sister, against his son's honesty, and against his own conscience. |
| Theme | the big idea the play explores, in a word or phrase | honesty; family loyalty; pressure on land |
| Message | what the play suggests about the theme, in a full sentence | Problems that are faced honestly and together are easier to solve than problems hidden by cheating. |
| Kind of conflict | Meaning | In the play |
|---|---|---|
| Person against person | two characters want opposite things | Ndoli against Mukeshimana over the boundary |
| Person against self | a struggle inside one character's mind | Ndoli's worry for his children against his conscience |
| Person against society | a character against the rules or opinion of the community | Ndoli's fear of the sector office and of what "the whole hill" will say |
| Person against nature or circumstance | a character against forces they cannot control | a growing family on land that does not grow |
Worked example
From theme to message
Definition
dramatic irony: when the audience knows something that a character on stage does not. At the start of the play, we watch Ndoli move the stone; when Mukeshimana enters, we know the truth before she does, and we wait tensely for her to notice.
Playwrights often begin with a story and turn it into a scene. The rules below are the grammar of a script; they connect with the reported speech you studied in units 4 and 5, in reverse.
| Rule | Story | Script |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Speaker's name, then a colon; no quotation marks | "Go and fetch the water," said Ndoli. | NDOLI: Go and fetch the water. |
| 2. Description becomes a stage direction: in brackets, in italics, in the present tense | Kamanzi did not move. | (KAMANZI does not move.) |
| 3. Adverbs of manner go in brackets before the line | "Nothing," he said too quickly. | NDOLI: (too quickly) Nothing. |
| 4. Reported speech becomes direct speech: reverse the backshift and change pronouns and time words | She said that the stone had been there the day before. | MUKESHIMANA: That stone was there yesterday. |
| 5. Thoughts become action, dialogue or a soliloquy | He was ashamed. | (He cannot look at his sister.) |
| 6. Speech sounds natural: contractions, short replies, interruptions and unfinished lines (…) | He tried to say again that it was the rain, but she interrupted him. | NDOLI: The rain … MUKESHIMANA: The rain does not carry stones uphill. |
Worked example
Turning a paragraph of story into a script
Story: Mutoni whispered to her mother that they should go to the sector office the next day, because the land was registered. Her uncle shouted that nobody was going anywhere.
Tip
Every line must do a job. In a play there is no narrator to fill gaps, so each line of dialogue should reveal a character, move the plot or build the conflict. If a line does none of these, cut it.
Warning
In on a secret? That's dramatic irony, a TED-Ed lesson by Christopher Warner. After watching, explain where "The Boundary Stone" uses dramatic irony and how it makes the audience feel.
Practice
Sources and credits
Written by Ganzaa.
