Playwrighting Workshop - Lesson 2 - Creating Characters

“Characters are the heart of any play. They keep us engaged with the play, and create interesting situations and conflict to help us build a story. If you’re unsure of how to start your play, creating characters can be a great way to begin.”

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Welcome to the Royal Court Young Playwrights Award. In this video, Tife Kusoro will help you to start creating and developing your characters.

You’ll create a character profile for your main character, explore monologue writing, and introduce a second character (and some conflict!)

By the end of this video, you should have created at least one character, who has some desires, some flaws, and some conflicts – ready to start developing your play structure.

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WORK AT HOME TASK:

Write a scene between two characters.

Use 3 components:

• What's their relationship?

• Where are they?

• What's the conflict?

Feel free to e-mail us your work to info@mixuptheatre.com

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Welcome to the Royal Court Young Playwrights Award. In this video, Sabrina Ali will help you to find your spark, the inspiration to start writing your play.

There will be a series of short writing exercises, including Word Association and What If prompts.

By the end of this video, you should have a play concept – including a setting, character(s) and conflict – ready to start developing your characters.

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The Young Playwrights Award will open for entries in 2026, for anyone aged 13-18 in the UK. Find out more here: https://royalcourttheatre.com/

The Royal Court Theatre is the writers’ theatre. It is the leading force in world theatre for energetically cultivating writers – undiscovered, emerging and established. The Royal Court is located in London, UK.

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