ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Charissa Menefee shares The Meet and Greet, an exercise that encourages playwrights to move back and forth between writing and performing, using discovery in both modes, to develop exciting, specific characters. The exercise challenges writers to think in terms of live performance, character voice, deep history, motivation, and objectives; this is sometimes easier for students who also study acting, but not always, as the text is incomplete—and it can be new territory for creative writing students used to working in silence on the page. After participating in this exercise, writers tend to see their characters as more complex, three-dimensional, and capable of agency and surprise.
