Introduction to Drama
Senior 3 · English
Introduction to Drama
5 lessons
Lesson 5 of 5
Five More Minutes: Writing and Performing a Short Play
40 min
Let's begin
Everything in this unit comes together here. You have seen what drama is, how its elements fit, which forms it takes and how a script is built. Now your group will write a short play of one scene and perform it for an audience. Start by reading a model, a comedy about one family's umuganda morning, and notice how much a short play can do in a few lines.
Read: a model short play
Written for this lesson. The family and the village leader are imagined.
FIVE MORE MINUTES
A play in one scene
Characters: TETA, fourteen · GRANDMOTHER · MR RWEMA, the village leader · KEVIN, Teta's cousin
A small house on a hill, seven o'clock on the last Saturday of the month: the morning of umuganda. TETA is asleep on a mat under a blanket. A cock crows. GRANDMOTHER enters, carrying a hoe.
GRANDMOTHER: Teta. Teta! The sun is up, the cock is up, the whole hill is up.
TETA: (from under the blanket) Five more minutes, Grandmother.
GRANDMOTHER: You said that five minutes ago.
TETA: Then it's the same five minutes.
(GRANDMOTHER pulls the blanket away. TETA curls up like a caterpillar.)
GRANDMOTHER: It's umuganda. We're clearing the drain by the school before the rains come.
TETA: Mama does umuganda for our family. That's enough.
GRANDMOTHER: Your mother is in Huye. And the drain doesn't care whose family you belong to.
(A whistle outside. MR RWEMA enters.)
MR RWEMA: Good morning, Mama! (He sees TETA on the mat.) Ah. And good morning to the sleeping beauty.
TETA: (aside, to the audience) Of all the people on this hill, it had to be him.
MR RWEMA: The drain by the school is full of plastic bottles. The last time it rained, the water came into the S1 classroom. Your old classroom, Teta.
TETA: (sitting up) The one with the map I painted on the wall?
MR RWEMA: The very same. The water reached Lake Kivu. (Pause.) On the map, I mean.
(KEVIN runs in, out of breath, holding two pairs of gloves.)
KEVIN: Teta! I've got gloves. If we're quick, we can have the shady end.
TETA: (standing up at last) Fine. But only because of my map.
GRANDMOTHER: (handing her the hoe) A reason is like a hoe, child. It doesn't matter where you found it, as long as you use it.
(TETA takes the hoe. TETA, KEVIN and MR RWEMA exit together. GRANDMOTHER looks at the empty mat, then lies down on it herself with a happy sigh.)
GRANDMOTHER: Five more minutes.
(Blackout.)
The play is 338 words long, including the title, cast list and stage directions. It takes about four minutes to perform.
How the script is laid out
Definition
Glossary
- umuganda (n): community work held in Rwanda on the last Saturday morning of every month, when neighbours work together on projects such as cleaning drains, building and planting trees.
- drain (n): a channel or pipe that carries away rainwater or waste water.
- blocking (n): in theatre, the planned movements and positions of the actors on stage.
- projection (n): speaking loudly and clearly enough for the whole audience to hear, without shouting.
- cue (n): the word or action that tells an actor it is time to speak or move.
How the model works
| Element | In "Five More Minutes" |
|---|---|
| Characters | four, each with a clear want: Teta wants to sleep; Grandmother wants her to work; Mr Rwema wants the drain cleared; Kevin wants the shady end. |
| Setting | one place and one time, given in the first stage direction: a house on a hill on umuganda morning |
| Conflict | Teta against Grandmother (and against her own laziness) |
| Plot | Teta refuses (exposition, rising action); Mr Rwema mentions her map (the turning point); she gets up (resolution); a surprise twist at the end |
| Form | comedy: ordinary people, a harmless fault, jokes, a happy ending |
| Techniques | quick dialogue; an aside ("it had to be him"); comic timing marked with a pause |
| Theme and message | community responsibility; people often help for personal reasons, and that is fine as long as they help |
Worked example
From an idea to a plot outline
- Start with a situation and a want: A girl wants to stay in bed on umuganda morning.
- Add someone who wants the opposite: her grandmother. Now there is a conflict.
- Raise the stakes with new information: the flood reached her old classroom, and her painted map.
- Find the turning point and the resolution: she gets up for her own reason.
- Add a final surprise that fits the characters: Grandmother takes her place on the mat. Write the outline in five lines before you write a single word of dialogue.
Worked example
Giving useful feedback in a rehearsal
- Start with what worked: "Your aside was really funny; the audience will love it."
- Name one thing to change, exactly: not "It was boring" but "Could you pause before 'On the map, I mean'?"
- Make it a suggestion, not an order: "What if you turned to the audience on that line?" "How about speaking more slowly when you're angry?"
- Try it at once, then decide together: "Let's run it again from Kevin's entrance."
Writing task: your group's short play
In groups of three to five, write a short play of one scene, 300 to 450 words long, for three or four characters. Choose a situation from your own life or community, such as a misunderstanding at the market, a message that is not what it seems, a family decision, or a test of honesty, or develop one of the role-plays from lesson 4.
- Plan: decide the form (comedy, serious drama or tragicomedy), the characters and what each wants, the setting and the conflict. Write a five-line outline.
- Draft: write the title, the cast list and an opening stage direction, then the dialogue, with directions for movement, manner, sound and light.
- Read aloud and revise: cut any line that does no job; check that the conflict is clear and the ending is satisfying.
Checklist before you rehearse
- ☐ The script has a title, a cast list and an opening stage direction that gives the place and time.
- ☐ Each character wants something, and at least two want different things.
- ☐ The plot has a beginning, a turning point and an ending.
- ☐ Names are in capitals, followed by a colon; there are no quotation marks.
- ☐ Stage directions are in brackets, in italics or underlined, and in the present tense.
- ☐ The play uses at least one aside, monologue or soliloquy.
- ☐ The dialogue sounds natural: contractions, short replies, interruptions.
- ☐ The play has a clear theme, and we can say its message in one sentence.
- ☐ The script is 300 to 450 words long.
Performing the play
| Area | What to work on |
|---|---|
| Roles | Choose a director (who watches and guides), actors, and a stage manager responsible for props, costumes, sound and cues. In a small group, people share jobs. |
| Voice | Projection: the back row must hear you. Pace: slower than normal speech. Pause: before an important line or a joke. Intonation and stress: show feeling and contrast (unit 7). |
| Body | Stay open to the audience: don't turn your back. Use gestures and facial expressions that match the line. Plan the blocking, using the stage areas from unit 4. |
| Rehearsal | Read through sitting down; then walk through the blocking; then rehearse without scripts; finally, a full rehearsal with props and sound, as if the audience were there. |
| Teamwork | Arrive on time, learn your lines, listen to the other actors and give feedback kindly. If someone forgets a line, help them by staying in character. |
How the performance will be assessed
| Criterion | Excellent | Good | Developing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Script | correct layout; clear conflict; every line does a job | mostly correct layout; conflict clear | layout errors; conflict unclear |
| Voice | clear, well projected, with pauses and expression | heard by most; some expression | hard to hear or too fast |
| Movement | planned blocking; faces the audience; gestures fit the lines | some planned movement | little movement; back to the audience |
| Teamwork | everyone has a role and supports the others | most members take part fully | one or two people do most of the work |
Tip
Learn lines with cues. Don't learn only your own lines: learn the line before each of yours, which is your cue. Then you will know exactly when to speak, and if someone changes a word, you can still come in at the right moment.
Warning
- Don't write a play with more speaking parts than your group has actors, or with scenes that need things you cannot find.
- Don't laugh at your own jokes on stage, and don't turn your back on the audience to speak to another actor.
- Keep the content respectful: a play may show a character who is unkind or dishonest, but it must not mock real people, groups or beliefs.
An Actor's Warm-Up, from the National Theatre. Do the warm-up with your group before every rehearsal and before your performance.
✦
Practice
- From the model: (a) What does each of the four characters want? (b) Find the aside and say what it shows about Teta. (c) Why does Mr Rwema mention Teta's map?
- Why is the pause before "On the map, I mean" important for an actor?
- What makes the last line, "Five more minutes", a good ending? Give two reasons.
- Rewrite this feedback so that it is exact and kind: (a) "You were bad." (b) "Speak better."
- Write a five-line plot outline for a play about a message that is not what it seems.
- Write your group's play, following the writing task and the checklist.
- Rehearse and perform your play. Afterwards, each member writes 60 to 80 words: what went well, one thing to improve, and what you learned about working as a team.
Show answersHide answers
- (a) Teta wants to keep sleeping; Grandmother wants Teta to join umuganda; Mr Rwema wants the drain cleared; Kevin wants to work at the shady end. (b) "Of all the people on this hill, it had to be him." It shows she is embarrassed and a little annoyed to be seen in bed by the village leader, and it shares the joke with the audience. (c) To give Teta a personal reason to care about the drain, which is the turning point.
- The pause lets the audience imagine a real flood reaching the real Lake Kivu before the joke is explained; without it, the joke is lost.
- Any two: it repeats Teta's first line, so the play ends where it began, like a circle; it is a surprise that fits Grandmother's humour; it rewards the audience with a final laugh; it shows that the old woman has earned her rest.
- Sample answers: (a) "Your entrance was strong. Could you hold the gloves up higher so the audience can see them?" (b) "Could you speak more slowly and turn towards the audience on your long line?"
- Open answer. Check for a want, an opposing want, a turning point and an ending.
- Open answer, checked against the checklist.
- Open answer.
Further reading
- English Senior 3 Student's Book, Rwanda Basic Education Board, revised 2026–2027. The national textbook for this unit, with further dramatic extracts and activities on the elements and forms of drama.
- The Gods Are Not to Blame, Ola Rotimi, Oxford University Press, 1971. A Nigerian tragedy that retells the story of Sophocles' Oedipus the King in a Yoruba setting.
- Sizwe Bansi Is Dead, Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona, first performed in 1972 and published in Statements, Oxford University Press, 1974. A short play made by three South African theatre-makers, mixing comedy and pain: a model of what two actors and a bare stage can do.
- A Raisin in the Sun, Lorraine Hansberry, Random House, 1959. A family drama about a Black family in Chicago deciding how to spend an insurance payment, full of sharp, natural dialogue.
Sources and credits
- Play "Five More Minutes" (imagined family and village leader), glossary, analysis and performance tables, assessment rubric, worked examples, writing task, checklist and practice: written by Ganzaa.
- Diagram "How the script is laid out": drawn by Ganzaa.
- Umuganda, held on the last Saturday of every month: Rwanda Governance Board.
- Video: An Actor's Warm-Up, National Theatre, embedded from YouTube, not copied.
Written by Ganzaa.