Goals

  • Learn about and explore playwriting elements including character, setting, and conflict and apply this knowledge to generate ideas for writing your own scenes.

Learn about and explore playwriting elements including character, setting, and conflict and apply this knowledge to generate ideas for writing your own scenes.

In a series of three videos, students will be guided to use their own homes as inspiration for unique theatrical scenes through a series of fun and challenging exercises. By the end of the series, each student will have generated story ideas using their unique background, knowledge, and experiences, as well as gained a basic understanding of character, setting, and conflict. These activities are appropriate for students in grades 6-12. They can do these activities with their families, or independently.

Find the lesson outline here

About the creator

Mora V. Harris headshot

Mora V. Harris

Mora V. Harris is a playwright, screenwriter, and educator based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Her plays for teens are published and licensed through Playscripts, Inc. and include the full-length comedies SPACE GIRL and MIRCALLA, as well as contributions to the ten-minute anthologies A Simpler Time and The Alibis (Upcoming). Additional writings have been published by HowlRound and Smith & Kraus. She was a two-time National Finalist for the Kennedy Center’s John Cauble Award for Outstanding Short Play, and a Second Place winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Script Competition. She holds a B.A. in Creative Writing and Theater from Oberlin College and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing from Carnegie Mellon University where she studied with Rob Handel. She works as a teaching artist for City Theatre and teaches screenwriting at La Roche University. She is Pittsburgh’s Regional Co-Representative for the Dramatist Guild. She is currently developing THE BERGERAC SIMULATION, an adaptation of the Rostand classic, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Public Theatre for their 2020-21 online season. Learn more at moravharris.com.