ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with matters that the playwright must address towards the end of the scripting process but before actors are cast and the rehearsal process begins. Even at the writing stage of a script, the playwright must be aware of set design and staging possibilities for their piece. Stage directions are usually required in a script and a playwright must learn how to include them to assist the later work of the director of the piece and the actors who perform it. Sound cues or, in some cases, live music performed in the play, can greatly enhance a piece of theatre, verbatim or otherwise, and the playwright will have to make decisions in this regard at the scripting stage.
A further difference between the practices of oral history and verbatim theatre is addressed in in regard to whether or not transcribed interviews are sent back to the narrators for their feedback and approval. While this is a standard practice in oral history, it is not generally an accepted process in verbatim theatre. That said, sometimes playwrights do send the excerpts that they intend to use in their script to their narrators and frequently, narrators are asked to attend either playreadings of the script or the final production, or both and so there is a degree of continuing involvement by the narrator after the interview process in this work.
