ABSTRACT
Framing the story involves addressing key issues of storytelling: Is the scope of events condensed or does it take place over a long period of time? Are the events arranged in chronological order or in some other timeline? Thematic concerns of the playwright also determine what events are focused on. This chapter examines the dramaturgical choices playwrights made in creating a basic narrative structure. Examples include: Shakespeare’s condensation of the years of events in Plutarch’s Lives of the Nobel Grecians and Romans into the relatively short time span of Julius Caesar. Robert Schenkkan’s presenting of 200 years of Eastern Kentucky history over the nine plays of The Kentucky Cycle shows the opposite principle of an expansive treatment of history. In addition, the process by which the playwrights arrived at the eventual story framing is explored.
