Staging your scene

Checklist
 Stage: What is the setting? Do you want to show the whole stage or just a portion of it?
 Actors: Who are the characters? What roles are they playing?
 Intentions: Why are your characters talking or interacting with one another?
 Actions: What types of body language are your characters showing?
 Props: How are the objects around your characters being used?

Example:
Original: I was worried that I would do badly since I did not finish the exam paper. However, my
teacher told me that I had done surprisingly well for my exams. I was in seven heavens! I could not
wait to tell my parents about my results when I reach home.

Improved: There was an air of anxiety in the classroom as Mrs Lau started returning our exam
papers. I clenched my hands, not daring to make eye contact with her. I shuddered as I thought
about the blanks that I had left in the paper.

“Malcolm!” Mrs Lau called out. Reluctantly, I stood up and shuffled to the front.

“Did I fail this paper?” I murmured.

“Well, you will be surprised!” she broke into a wide smile, “You actually performed better than most
of your classmates.”

I grabbed the paper and on it was a score of 72. I rubbed my eyes in disbelief. All my worries
instantly evaporated like alcohol on a floor.

“Ha! Look what I got!” I waved the paper triumphantly at my friend Billy, unable to control my
laughter, “I bet I beat you!”

“I thought you were just telling me that you were going to fail this morning!” he whined and gave
me a friendly punch on my chest, “I probably can’t trust your words next time!”

Are you able to identify the various parts of writing a scene?

Now let’s try to apply it to the following scenarios:

 Your first stage performance

 Your brother wants to buy a toy but your family is too poor to afford it.
 Trouble on public transport
 A policeman is interrogating a suspect
 You meet someone who looks exactly like you