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Welcome back.

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The focus of this session is story.

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What do you think about
when you hear the word story?

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A book?

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A tale?

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Story time?

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Today we'll explore how story works
in the theater, including

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the author's role, dramatic structure, adaptation, and

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writing in character voice.

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Since the beginning of human history,

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storytelling
has been a central part of culture.

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Long before the invention
of movies, television, and even books,

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the theater was the primary method
for communities to share stories.

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Even today, the live performance
of a play unites an audience in a shared

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intellectual and emotional experience
in a way that nothing else can.

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The Lion King
celebrates the global gift of theater

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by drawing from storytelling traditions
from around the world, including elements

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from Asia, Europe, Africa,
and the Americas.

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Since its Broadway premiere in 1997,
The Lion King

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has been translated into several languages
for productions around the world.

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In the theater, stories are told on stage

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through the collaboration
of many different creative people.

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For a musical, these collaborators
include a playwright,

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composer, lyricist, director,

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choreographer and music director,
as well as designers and actors.

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The story of a musical begins
with its authors.

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The playwright, often called a book writer
in musical theater, writes the script.

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The composer writes the music.

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The lyricist writes
the lyrics or the words to the songs.

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For a musical like The Lion King,

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the authors had to create
a dramatic structure of the play.

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Decide how to adapt the story
for the stage and determine

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how each character would speak, sing,
and behave on stage.

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Let's look at each of these ideas.

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The playwright
creates a dramatic structure

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for the events of the plot
so that the audience can follow the story.

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Many pieces of literature,
including plays,

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are based on a climactic plot structure
with five parts.

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The Exposition introduces
background information for the audience,

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what the audience needs to know
where are we?

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Who are the characters
of what's happening in their lives?

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The Rising Action is a series of events
that increase conflict and tension.

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It begins with an inciting incident,
the event that gets the action started.

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During the Climax,
the conflict comes to a head, often

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in a moment of suspense
and causes a change in the main character.

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In the Falling Action, the conflict passes

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and the loose ends of the plot are tied up.

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In the Resolution,

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the story comes to a reasonable end.

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Adaptation is the

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process of taking an existing story
and finding a new way to tell it.

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For example, books
are sometimes adapted to become movies,

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and movies
are sometimes adapted to become plays.

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The Lion King is an example of adaptation.

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The authors of the musical reinvented
the 1994

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animated film
when they created it for the stage.

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Although the basic story remained, the way
in which it was told changed

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a great deal.

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Let's hear Director Julie Taymor

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talk about the storytelling
in The Lion King on Broadway.

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The fun part for me was
how do you do a stampede on stage?

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How do you create
the image of the savanna?

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Because the animated film could do it all.

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They could
they could create those vast landscapes.

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And the cave of Scar.

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And I loved doing that in the theater.

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Finding highly theatrical means
to create, a naturalistic landscape.

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An important part of the

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playwright's job is creating
distinct characters.

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He or she must be very specific about the
words chosen for each character to say.

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This is called writing in Character Voice.

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Let's take a look

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at how the authors of The Lion King wrote
distinct voices for Timon and Pumbaa.

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Pay attention to how the dialogue for each
character is unique.

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Uh-oh. Hey, Timon, you better come look!

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I think it's still alive.

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Alrightie... What have we got here?

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Oh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh

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Jeeze, it's a lion! Run, Pumbaa! Move it!

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Hey Timon.

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It's just a little lion.

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Look at him.

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He's so cute and all alone.

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Can we keep him

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Pumbaa, are you nuts?

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You're talking about a lion!

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Lions eat guys like us!

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Did you see how the playwrights
chose unique ways of speaking

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for each character that
the actors elaborated in performance?

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For example, Pumbaa is kind
hearted and uses phrases like,

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“He's so cute and all alone”

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and Timon is more anxious
and uses phrases like,

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“Are you nuts?!”

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The playwright creates those words which
the actor brings to life in performance.

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Today,

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we've examined storytelling in the theater
and the author's role in writing a play.

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Now you will take turns as authors
as you explore

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dramatic structure, adaptation
and writing in character voice.