Republic of the Philippines

Isabela State University

Echague, Isabela

S.Y 2020-2021

A Reaction Paper on

The Art of Verbal Action, Page, Stage and Screen

By Robert McKee

In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Subject

Speech and Theatre Arts

MODULE 3
Make a reaction paper on “The Art of Verbal Action for Page, Stage and Screen” by Robert
McKee
(Minimum of 150 words and maximum of 250 words)
The concept of art is really challenging to ponder on, as its complexity adds up to the
things that made us think of what really classifies it. Art can be sometimes defined as the
connection between what the artist means to achieve and what he achieves through the
medium. Looking into this perspective, Robert McKee, a Fulbright scholar and one of the
world’s most sought-after lecturer in the art of story makes it to his book “The Art of Verbal
Action for Page, Stage, and Screen” the idea of what art must be in a story or play. The book
gives us the idea about dialogue as the framework or heart of action in a Page, Stage and
Screen, supplementing it by its three distinctly different tracks: said to others, said to oneself,
and said to the reader or audience. The book teaches that stories performed onstage and
onscreen moves through physical media through the senses of sound and sight. Moreover, the
performer when lone onstage act, he creates as dramatized story by splitting himself into two
and pitting his warring selves against each other. Lastly, the verbal action on screen as where
it invites the audience to get into the screen taking them in to different dimensions of the
story. This only proves the remarks of Terry Johnson, a playwright about the book that
teaches us unwavering analytical light on the structure and invisible substructure of dialogue.