messy •indignant•vulnerable•
ACT I
Dramatic Summer
Be as creative and bend the theme as much as your imagination can let you. This isn't your English final exam. But since literally anything can happen, here are some media prompts to incite some creativity.
colour pool
warm tones, aqua blue, raspberry pink, white,
fuchia, greens, florals
Wordpool:
heart-squeezing, sunburnt, quiet desperation, underwater, waves, conflict, young, city, small town, discover, burden, enemies, leap, unreliable narrator, falling apart, love interest, slow motion, ice-lollies, reaping, at first sight, bright, hope/less, agency, change, build-up, speaking up, sticky skin,
･ﾟ✧ , When summer slipped us underneath her tongue
･ﾟ,✧ Write a review of your favourite first act. (we'd love to see more film journals)
･ﾟ✧ First kiss summer nights
･ﾟ✧Extreme facial expression
･ﾟ✧ Introduce us to a new world/creature.
･ﾟ✧ Origin story to the origin story
･ﾟ✧ Write a prophecy
･ﾟ✧ Before the makeover.
･ﾟ✧ "It divided my life into before and after"
･ﾟ✧ My heartbreaks loudly and quickly
･ﾟ✧ how do you beat the heat?
･ﾟ✧ Depending on where you start my story...
･ﾟ✧ Let's dance while we can.
･ﾟ✧ Explore a type of relationship; enemies, best friends, siblings, professional.
･ﾟ✧Mismatch a tone to the atmosphere/story/character. ie A light-hearted horror.
Prompts
･ﾟ✧Do you have to move on?
･ﾟ✧ If we were to meet you at your lowest/highest point, where would we find you?
･ﾟ✧Introduce yourself.
･ﾟ✧What fills you with fear
･ﾟ✧ Where does your sense of purpose come from?
･ﾟ✧ What do you want? What do you need? What do you trick yourself into wanting or needing?
･ﾟ✧ What relationships matter most to you.
QnA
What happens in Act 1:
Act I is the hook that draws the audience in so they can be dragged into the story.
The bisexual coded villain smirks for the first time. Demigods get claimed. The lonely outcast meets a ragtag team of misfits, and they can already tell they have 'found family'. The audience is transported back to 1920s Shanghai. The morally perfect parental figure gets... "unalive. Meek teens stumble upon magic. Protagonists tap into the desires and fears that will fuel their story.
In rudimentary terms, Act I is where it all begins. Where the story gets dressed or undressed. There is the exposition, the setup, the inciting incident.