Script writing doesn’t have to be as hard as you might think. I have written 3 full-length pantomimes, 1 short play and a murder mystery. I have had no formal training or practical experience of script-writing, however my 3 pantomimes have all been performed and each year have been recognised by each pantomime winning regional awards including “Best Original Script” for my Aladdin pantomime. My point isn’t to boast about how good I am at script-writing…it’s basically to prove that if I can do it, then anyone can! Here’s a few top tips on how to attempt your own pantomime script:
1. Think of a story…a good pantomime plot. It really helps if you are familiar with the general plot-line and there is no shame in making it a classic story. I actually think it’s wise to start with a “classic” like Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk etc. One’s that you have a good storyline as well as room for your own creativity.
2. You can roughly say that a page of script will take on average 2 minutes to perform on stage. So I would say that a script should be NO longer than 2 hours long! (Otherwise the audience gets REALLY bored) so you want to aim to write 60 pages altogether (with an interval at a suitable place between pages 26 – 34).
3. Work out what key elements need to feature in the story and make these significant scenes and then break them down into the first Act and the second Act. Do this roughly with bullet-points so that you know what bits you need to cover in order for the script to make sense.
4. Think of characters that you need to appear, and then characters that you would like to appear. Do not write 20 characters, just because there are 20 people in the group…otherwise you will get too focused on making sure that characters are present and speaking in scenes rather than looking at the comedy and the relevance of the scene.
5. I find it useful to NOT read any other scripts relating to the story that I am writing about ... reading lots of similar storyline scripts can influence strongly on what you write and then you could be caught up with plagiarism or copyright problems - if you haven’t read the scripts and things are similar, then that’s pure coincidence.
6. The key to when you are writing comedy scripts is to make sure that your scripts makes you laugh. Read it out loud to a friend when you have finished scenes, if people laugh with you then you are on the right track!
Have a go and see how you get along. If you would like any further information about Writing Pantomimes or if you have any other suggestions for articles/top tips etc then please contact me.