In this course we talk before we make and after we make, on purpose. Talking first surfaces the ideas a scene will need; talking afterwards is where the learning actually settles — a performance nobody discusses evaporates by Friday. The pages here frame those conversations: Why Trust Comes First, Drama in Everyday Life, and Watching Like an Artist.
Two norms hold every discussion together:
- Build on. Before adding your own idea, connect it to someone else’s — “adding to what Sam said” is the spoken version of “yes, and”.
- Disagree with the idea, not the person. “I see it differently, because —” keeps an argument useful. Arguments about ideas make drama better; arguments about people end it.
Come ready to be persuaded. A discussion where nobody changed their mind even slightly was not a discussion — it was a set of speeches.