Exercise 1: What changes?

Characters need to change or go on a journey or their existence in your play can seem purely functional.

For each character jot down the following:

Beginning of the play:

• What emotional state are they in?
• What do they want?
• What do they need?

End of the play:

• What emotional state are they in?
• Have achieved their goals?
• How have they changed?

If you can’t find the answers to the questions about your characters at the end of the play, or you feel they haven’t changed, go back and look at their journey.

You might find it useful to map out their journey again and consider how you can weave this into your plot – and then into your script.