Periods, commas, semi-colons, dashes and dots can all be likened to silent musical notes as their function within playwriting is creating rhythm for the characters' speech, a scene and the entire piece. In dialogue/lines there are no comma splices; run on sentences have legitimate value and even a single word can merit a period.
The implied silences indicated by punctuation marks have two other arbiters of quiet for the stage: (beat) and (pause).A (pause) or (beat) can give the audience or actor a place to catch their breathe, create an uncomfortable silence, emphasize a point as well as make or lose you a laugh line.
Listed below are the basic elements that create cadence and rhythm. The silent notes vary in the length of silence allotted for each symbol and are arranged from the briefest to the longest.
The Silence Scale
./period
,/comma
;/semi-colon/…/(short beat)
(beat)
(pause)
1) (Beat)/(beat): A period of silence whose standard length = a whole note in music
2) (Pause)/(pause): Also a period of silence. Longer than a beat, commonly two- three whole notes
Both (beat) and (pause) :
- each can be long or short, therefore adding or subtracting a sliver off the silence
Ex. (long beat) = longer than a standard beat but not a pause
- both are (bracketed) within the text
- both can be placed before, after or during a line of dialogue,
between lines and as stage direction.
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