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[Coop and Dino singing]

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What would you do if you won a free trip around the world? [Girl celebrating]

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Sure, you could spend the weeks leading up to your trip running around in excitement,

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telling people about your good luck… [Girl running around in excitement]

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But you should probably spend at least a little time planning your trip... The world is huge!

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Otherwise, you might end up in the rainforest without a raincoat or on the beach without [Girl in rainforest and begins to rain]

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sunscreen… and that might just ruin your cool, free trip.

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Anyway, that whole "planning" idea doesn’t just apply to adventures. [People on a rollercoaster]

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It can be useful for all sorts of things, including writing a play.

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An author doesn't just sit down and launch straight into writing a play. [Person scribbling on paper]

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Well…maybe some of them do.

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To each their own!

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But some author's like to plan.

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Some authors like to plan a lot. [Man drops stack of papers on author]

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First, they have to decide how many characters there will be and what those characters will

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be like.

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Playwrights don’t get to speak to their audiences directly; they have to do it through

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their characters, so it's pretty important to get this right.

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So let's say our author's play has a grumpy old man, an excitable young child, a sassy [Play characters appear]

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teenager girl, and an evil mad scientist.

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These characters become the playwright's “Cast of Characters.”

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Next up, the playwright must decide where the play will be set.

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Whether it’s a city in present day or a village in the medieval ages, it’s pretty

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crucial to write down and describe the setting. [Person writing down the play settings]

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Otherwise all those characters will be just, like, floating in space or something.

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Which could be cool.

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Y'know, if you have a really talented set designer… [Characters floating in space]

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The third planning step is to figure out what the big conflict of the play is.

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After all, without a conflict, a play would just be a bunch of people being boring.

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So yeah, the conflict is pretty important.

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Finally, the playwright must plan out their plot. [Coop discussing step four of planning]

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Once they know the conflict, they can work around it to build a beginning, middle and end.

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How do the characters get themselves into the conflict? [Boy in a dingy and sharks circle]

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And how do they get themselves out?

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This is arguably the hardest part, as it requires working out all the details of the story. [A ladder appears and a shark eats the man]

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But, hey, once all the work is done, the play is pretty much on the floor in a bunch of

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separate pieces just waiting to be assembled.

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Just don’t forget your screwdriver.

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Or pen.

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Writing a play with a screwdriver would be pretty tough. [Man holding a screwdriver and piece of paper]

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