Script Writing and Performance
Senior 6 · Literature in English
Script Writing and Performance
Lesson 3 of 5
25 min
Two days before the festival, the drama club is in trouble. Read the scene, written for this lesson, and notice the small verbs that carry the characters' certainty, doubt, duty and regret.
The school hall, late afternoon. Chairs stacked against the wall. NSHUTI, the director, holds a script. ISHIMWE sits on the edge of the stage. GATETE, the stage manager, checks a list.
NSHUTI Where is Uwera? She should be here by now.
ISHIMWE She may be at the clinic. She said she might have a fever.
GATETE She can't be very ill. I saw her at lunch, eating two plates of rice.
NSHUTI Then she must have forgotten. (He sighs.) We can't rehearse the last scene without the queen.
ISHIMWE I could read her part. I know most of it.
NSHUTI Could you? Thank you. But you'll have to hold the script.
GATETE We mustn't forget the drums either. The music teacher needs them back by five.
NSHUTI We don't have to use the big drum today. Shall we start from the queen's entrance?
ISHIMWE (climbing onto the stage) We ought to have started an hour ago.
NSHUTI I know. I should have checked the timetable. Places, please.
Shakespeare's characters use the same verbs at their moments of greatest pressure:
LADY MACBETH Things without all remedy
Should be without regard: what's done is done.Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 2
MACBETH Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand?Macbeth, Act 2, Scene 2
Definition
| Function | Modals | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Ability | can, could, be able to | I could read her part. |
| Permission and requests | can, could, may | May I use the hall on Friday? |
| Possibility | may, might, could | She may be at the clinic. |
| Deduction | must (sure it is true), can't (sure it is not), should (probably) | She can't be very ill. |
| Obligation | must (the speaker's rule), have to (an outside rule) | You'll have to hold the script. |
| Prohibition | mustn't | We mustn't forget the drums. |
| No obligation | don't have to, needn't | We don't have to use the big drum. |
| Advice | should, ought to | You should speak more slowly. |
| Offers and suggestions | shall (with I or we), will | Shall we start from the queen's entrance? |
| Past regret or criticism | should have, ought to have, could have | I should have checked the timetable. |
| Rule | Right | Wrong |
|---|---|---|
| Modal + base verb, without "to" (except ought to, have to) | She can sing. | She can to sing. |
| No -s after he, she or it | He must go. | He musts go. |
| Questions and negatives without "do" | Can you come? I can't come. | Do you can come? |
| Mustn't (not allowed) is not don't have to (not necessary) | You mustn't touch the lights. You don't have to stay late. | You mustn't stay late. (if you mean it is optional) |
In dialogue, modals reveal character: a nervous person hedges with might and could; a bossy one gives orders with must; a guilty one looks back with should have. In stage directions, avoid them. Write what happens, in the present simple: not "He should look sad" but "He looks away"; not "She might sit down" but "She sits". A stage direction is an instruction, not a suggestion.
Tip
Listen for the speaker's attitude. "He is late" is a fact; "He must be late", "He might be late" and "He can't be late" are three different opinions. When you analyse a character's speech, the modal is often the clue to what they really feel.
Warning
BBC Learning English: "Modals in the past". Note the examples of must have, might have and should have, and find one of each in the scene above.
Practice
Sources and credits
