ABSTRACT
Choosing key events is crucial to the successful outcome of storytelling. Ideally though, those key events also fulfill many other dramaturgical functions such as tracking the main character journeys, having great comedic or dramatic potential, containing the nuance and flavor of the historical period and helping to focus the theme of the play. The term nugget refers to events that fulfill multiple purposes. Examples include: in Roe by Lisa Loomer, the first meeting between Norma McCorvey is a key plot point in the legal case but also serves to reveal character background, introduce the main character conflict in the play as well as feature entertaining banter. Another factor in the choice of events is the potential of contemporary resonance: In All the Way by Robert Schenkkan, although the main focus of the play is on the issue of race in the 1960s, the arrest of an aide of Lyndon Johnson’s in a vice raid highlights the issue of LGBTQ rights in that period and contrasts the more limited notion of civil rights then with contemporary ideas of civil rights now.
