ABSTRACT
TURN SEQUENCING IN DRAMA If turn change and turn distribution options can be used as a dramatic resource, the mechanics of sequencing can be made dramatically relevant as well. For any stretch of dialogue to be brought into existence at all, turn change must occur. In the course of the play different dramatis personae are brought into relation through interaction to construct various speech events. Each segment of interaction has its place and function within the whole design. As turn succeeds upon turn, the character-to-character communications that ensue articulate in their linear structuring the emergent and emerging course of the inter-personal action as it develops turn by turn. A dramatist’s turn sequencing strategies are thus of interest since they shape the contours of a situation within the immediacies of its making and by those involved in it. The initiation of speech calls forth other speech, which, in turn, calls forth further speech, till the interactive business required is accomplished. Characters are thus implicated in what happens, their management of the responsive dimension of dialogue making them personally and jointly responsible for the course and outcomes of their actions.
