Play Development Process

We use a step-by-step development process to make certain that the final program is exactly what you expect.

Phase #1: Meeting to develop case material

The consultant and playwright  (and perhaps the director) will meet with the appropriate client individuals to develop the case materials to be presented. The interviews or focus group meetings focus on several issues:

• What characters should be depicted?
• What situations should be depicted?
• What training points should the play (or mini-play) illustrate?

The PowerSuasion Players have developed a process to gather this information effectively and efficiently so that the thoughts, ideas, and concepts of the client are incorporated in the creation process.  If further information is needed, further interviews might be conducted by telephone.

Phase #2: Development of scenarios

After the gathering of information in Phase #1, the playwright and other PowerSuasion Players staff develop scenarios--essentially outlines of the action that the play(s) will depict. These scenarios usually also include character sketches as well. Once these are developed they are submitted to the appropriate individuals for review

Phase #3: Meeting (or tele-conference) to review scenarios

The purpose of this meeting (or tele-conference) is to review the scenarios and make whatever "adjustments" need to be made before the writing process begins.  After the meeting, revised scenarios are forwarded for final approval.

Phase #4: Writing of scripts

After approval of the scenarios, the playwright writes the scripts, based on all the information gathered. 

Phase #5: Meeting to read the scripts

After the scripts are written, actors are rehearsed for the reading of the scripts. This means that the actors only perform the play with script in hand; usually, the performance at a reading is not fully staged--in other words, there is no full movement of actors across a stage, but only actors sitting or standing and reading from the page, bringing to the script as much as their voice and simple gestures allows. The purpose in a reading is to make sure that the language of the script fits the "culture" of the client. By the way, the reading the script is not the same as performing the script, unless so demanded by the client. 

Phase #6: Rehearsal of the scripts

Approximately a month before the performance, the director begins rehearsals of the script. Even prior to the beginning of rehearsal, the director has begun work. The director makes decisions about what kind of body language the characters will show, what tones the characters will employ in speaking words, what props will be used, and what the layout of the stage looks like. Then, the rehearsals begin. The actors must memorize their lines, memorize the movements they will make, and build biographies of the characters to make be able to perform the characters credibly. 

Phase #7: Delivery

The simulations will be delivered at the conference by the actors and the facilitator.