TABLE OF CONTENTS
On Exposition
Jeffrey Sweet. Illustration by Dan Romer for The Dramatist.
Some writers aren’t coy about exposition. Some introduce a figure who faces downstage and delivers a briefing openly. Shakespeare invoking a muse of fire. Brecht announcing the location of the action. Thornton Wilder laying out the geography and sociology of Grover’s Corners. In story theatre presentations, like David Edgar’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, the ensemble may jointly narrate in the third person. (Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flahery used this device to open their musical version of E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime.)
Obviously, direct address can be effective. But if you want to try a more oblique approach ...
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