Estimated time: 75 minutes. Competencies: prompt engineering, creativity and innovation.
Video: Lesson 2.1: AI-Assisted Dramatic Storytelling. Three-minute introduction: the six-element scene brief, prompting as directing, and the human rewrite. (Instructor: build with make_videos.py or record and embed your own.)
Theatre Lesson Three: Digital Storytelling. Recorded by the instructor for the 2025 pilot of this program.
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson you will be able to:
Write a scene brief that specifies characters, objective, obstacle, setting, tone, and form.
Use a text model to draft a scene and then direct at least two rounds of revision with specific dramaturgical notes.
Rewrite at least a third of the dialogue in your own voice and explain what you changed and why.
Prepare the scene for a table read.
Warm-up: the smallest scene (5 minutes)
Write three lines of dialogue between two characters who want opposite things. Do not name the things; let the wanting show in the lines. This is the core of dramatic writing: objective meets obstacle. A text model can produce fluent dialogue instantly, but it does not know what your characters want unless you tell it.
Key ideas
The scene brief
A text model is a fast, tireless, slightly bland writing partner. Its first draft will be competent and forgettable. What makes it useful is a brief that carries your artistic choices. Use this frame:
Element
Question
Example
Characters
Who, how old, what relationship?
"A retiring band director and a first-year teacher taking over her program"
Objective
What does each want in this scene?
"She wants him to keep the jazz band; he wants to cut it for budget"
Obstacle
What stands in the way?
"The principal has already approved the cut; she does not know that yet"
Setting
Where and when?
"Band room, last day of school, instruments half packed"
Tone
How should it feel?
"Warm, wry, one moment of real anger, no tidy resolution"
Form
How long, what shape?
"Two pages, one location, ends on a decision not spoken aloud"
Prompting is directing
After the first draft, your prompts become director's notes. Good notes are specific and actionable: "Cut the exposition in the first six lines; start with her already holding the trumpet case." "Give him one line where he almost agrees, then retreats." "Replace the final speech with a single gesture." Vague notes ("make it better," "more emotional") produce vague rewrites.
The human rewrite
A scene is finished when it sounds like people you know. Models default to characters who say what they mean and explain their feelings. Real people deflect, interrupt, joke at the wrong moment, and leave things unsaid. Your rewrite is where the scene becomes yours: cut explanation, add subtext, and give each character one verbal habit.
Activity: draft, direct, rewrite (55 minutes)
Write the brief using the six-element frame. Choose a situation connected to a school, a rehearsal, a family, or a community you know.
Draft. Paste the brief into a text model with this instruction: "Write a two-page, two-character scene in standard stage-play format based on this brief. Use only dialogue and brief stage directions."
Read it aloud (both parts). Mark every line that explains a feeling instead of showing it, and every line that no real person would say.
Direct round 1. Give the model three specific notes drawn from your marks. Ask for a revised draft.
Direct round 2. Give three more notes. Focus on the ending and on subtext.
Rewrite by hand. Copy the scene into a document. Rewrite at least one third of the lines yourself. Track your changes or highlight them.
Prepare for a table read. Add a title, a character list with one-line descriptions, and a one-sentence note to actors about tone.
Save as PDF named Lesson-2-1_LastName_Title.pdf.
Note bank
Director's notes you can adapt for revision rounds:
"Start the scene later: cut the first [n] lines."
"Give [character] a line they regret immediately."
"Replace every line that names an emotion with an action."
"Add one interruption where they talk over each other."
"End on an image, not a statement."
"Make the setting do work: have a prop from the setting change hands."
Create and share
Post in the Lesson 2.1 Gallery:
The scene PDF with your rewrites marked.
Your six-element brief.
The six director's notes you gave across the two rounds.
A rationale of no more than 75 words: which note produced the biggest change, and what your rewrite added that the model could not.
Your one-line AI credit.
Reply to two peers: quote one line you would keep exactly as written, and give one director's note for the next revision.
Resources
Any text model (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini).
A standard stage-play format guide (search "Dramatists Guild formatting").
Optional: a peer or family member to read the second part aloud with you.
Reflection prompts
Where did the model's draft surprise you, and where was it predictable?
Which of your rewrites would you defend to a student who preferred the model's version?
How would you structure this activity so students cannot skip the rewrite step?