ABSTRACT
Story and Plot Most theater practitioners and scholars agree on a basic distinction between story and plot drawn from Aristotle's definition of plot in his Poetics (350 B.C.). Story is the sum of all narrative facts that occur or are alluded to in the text. Story includes not only all the events that occur on stage, but also all the events that occur offstage, as well as past events discussed or implied during the play. Plot is the playwright's selection and arrangement of events for portrayal on stage. Story is chronological, whereas plot follows the playwright's logic for the drama, how he or she wishes to see events unfold. Plot is what actually happens on stage,
whereas story includes every event that the play or characters refer to, even if it is not shown on stage.
