2.3 The first act Continued
“One act, one scene” is a golden rule, since a change of scene in the middle of an act tends to impair the particular order of illusion at which the modern drama aims and is physically challenging to execute. An act can be defined as any part of a given crisis which works itself out at one time and in one place. It is a segment of the action during which the author desires to hold the attention of his audience unbroken and spellbound. Acts mark the time-stages in the development of a given crisis and each act aim to embody a minor crisis of its own, with a culmination and a temporary solution. Each act is a little drama in itself and leads forward to the next - and marks a distinct phase in the development of the crisis. The act-division certainly enhances the amount of pleasurable emotion through which the audience passes.
It is not about how much or how little is conveyed to the audience in the first act, but whether their interest is aroused, and skillfully carried forward. When the curtain is down the action on the stage remains in suspense and the audience is quite willing to suppose that any reasonable space of time has elapsed since the previous act ended. Some playwrights, like Sir Arthur Pinero in “Iris”, drop the curtain once or twice in the middle of an act, to indicate a time interval.
The first act should show us clearly who the characters are, what their relations and relationships are, and what the nature of the gathering crisis is. It is very important to keep the relationships simple, since intricacies will often prove to be mere useless encumbrances.
The good plays are those of which the story can be clearly summarized in ten lines, while it may take a column to give even a confused idea of the plot of a lesser play. A useful guideline is whether the core of the subject can be formulated in about a hundred words.
The first act should be placing the situation clearly before us, pointing and carrying the story line distinctly towards the heart of the play and the developing crisis, especially in three-act plays, to sustain the interest of the audience. Too much should not be told, so that the remaining acts be weakened, nor should any one scene be so intense so it outshines all subsequent scenes and leave the rest of the play with an effect of an anti-climax. The point at which the drama enfolds – the germination of the crisis where the drama sets in, can be very functional if appearing in the first act. The playwright would be wise not to assume previous knowledge of plot or character on the part of the public.