Unlike written stories in which the writer can develop a character using narrative point of view and descriptions, plays as a literary art form rely on the playwright’s use of verbal and physical expressions to allow the audience to know what the characters are thinking and feeling and how those things change over the course of the story. Students should understand how the dialogue (spoken lines) and staging (physical placement and movement) reveal or reflect characters’ thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the events of the plot.

the words spoken between characters in a play, film, fictional work, or nonfiction narrative that establishes plot, character, and the central message of the work

the process of selecting, designing, adapting to, or modifying the performance space for a play