  Drama
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What is happening
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Observing a play-rehearsal once, I heard the director tell an actor something that set me thinking. "You're good," she said. "You take the pauses really well."
'Take' a pause.
Take a pause well.
Looked at one way, this could imply that a pause is something that is tangible, something that can be 'taken' ... or maybe, 'given'.
If the actor takes the pause, does the playwright give it? Probably.
Let's say the playwright, in the form of the script, gives the crew the dialogues, the actions, the setting ... and the pauses. For those who write scripts, this becomes a responsibility, a duty, and sheer fun. It's a whole new dimension to think about - giving a pause.
So what happens when there is a pause, either in dialogue or in action?
Simple. Neither the dialogue nor the action actually stops.
What happens is, dialogue and action shift.
They shift from the physical to the intellectual, the emotional, the spiritual. The move from the mouth, or the hands and feet -- to the brain, the heart and the soul.
Whose brain, heart and soul? The actor's, the character's, and the audience's.
The actor needs to think it through -- why am I pausing? What am I saying to myself, when I am not speaking any dialogue? Am I speaking to myself, or am I trying to communicate by telepathy, with the other character or the audience? Am I looking to the past, or the future? What am I doing in my mind and my heart, when I'm not 'doing' something physically?
This will depend on the clues the playwright has given in the script, about the character, the circumstances, the setting, the dynamics between the characters and the 'baggage' each character brings to the scene. If the playwright leaves it open to interpretation, the actor and director work together to fill in the blanks, in this case, the pauses. The audience then interprets what happens on stage, for it to touch their minds, hearts and souls.
Let's take a couple of extracts and analyse them for 'pauses'. (The extracts are from prose pieces. I'd like you to think what you'd do were you to convert them to scripts. My  humble comments are in green.)
FROM: LASSIE COME-HOME by ERIC KNIGHT
(Puffin Classics, 1981)
The dog was not there! That was all Joe Carraclough knew.
That day, he had come out of school with the others, and had gone racing across to the gate where Lassie had always waited. And she was not there.
(A pause in action here. Disbelief, probably.)
He glanced down the street. Perhaps Lassie was late! But he knew it could not be that. Lassie always knew when it was time to start for the school gate. Lassie could not be late.
(There would probably be a pause in the action of searching here. The boy is thinking, wondering. Is he calm? Is he agitated or hopeful or sad or frightened ... the expression on his face would show that. Would a scriptwriter put it in, or would it be left to the actors, based on what has already been indicated? What is the audience thinking? Are they guessing, along with the boy, what might have happened to the dog? Are they feeling sorry for him?)
Perhaps someone had stolen Lassie!
Yet, this could hardly be true. No stranger could so much as put a hand on Lassie unless one of the Carracloughs were there to order her to submit to it. No one would dare to try and steal her.
But where could she be?
Joe Carraclough solved this problem as thousands of boys solve their problems the world over. He ran home to tell his mother.
Down the main street he went, through the village, up a lane – and then through the cottage door, to cry out: “Mother? Mother, something has happened to Lassie. She did not meet me at school!”
(What follows is the most telling pause of all. After the heightened drama of his run home, and his loud cry, everything is at a sudden halt. It's like the universe is waiting to know what happened to the dog -- and the two people who know aren't ready to tell. When the 'action' resumes, it does so at an agonisingly slow pace, with the boy's father turning his head, in sharp contrast to the quickened pace of the boy's run home.)
As soon as he had said it, Joe Carraclough knew that there was something wrong. No one in the cottage jumped up and asked him what the matter was. No one seemed afraid that something dire had happened to their fine dog.
Joe’s father was sitting on a low stool before the fire, his head turned toward his son. Slowly, without speaking, he turned back to the fire and stared into it intently.
“What is it, Mother?” Joe cried out. “What’s wrong?”
Mrs. Carraclough set a plate on the table – slowly – and then she spoke.
“You might as well know it right off, Joe,” she said. “Lassie won’t be waiting at school for you any more. And there’s no use crying about it.”
“Why not? What has happened to her?”
Mrs. Carraclough went to the fireplace and set the kettle over it. She spoke without turning.
(Why doesn't Mrs. Carraclough pause in her housework? Surely the boy's query about his dog is important -- setting the dishes or getting the kettle warm can wait a few seconds till she answers him. Why does she continue with these chores, and even slow them down?)
“Because she is sold. That’s why not.”
(Would there be a pause here, to let it sink in, or would the boy come in with his next dialogue immediately? How would he say the word 'sold' when he echoes it?)
“Sold!” the boy echoed. “Sold! What did you sell her for – Lassie – what did you sell her for?”
(Now, it looks like there is no pause. The mother's action seems to have come in quickly.)
His mother turned angrily.
“Oh, dogs, dogs, dogs,” she flared. “All this trouble over one dog. Well, if you ask me, I am glad Lassie’s gone. That I am. As much trouble to take care of as a child. Now she is gone, and it’s done with, and I am glad. I am glad.”
(So how could the pauses have been different? What if the boy's mother had run to comfort him as soon as he said the dog was lost? Why didn't she? What if the father had spoken up as soon as his son entered the house? Why didn't he? What is the significance of the father's complete lack of movement or dialogue, barring turning his head?)
* * * * * * * * *
Here's another extract to mull over. Again, my comments are in green.
From: “RAMONA THE BRAVE” by Beverly Cleary
There were many things Ramona and her sister Beezus – Beatrice – disagreed about: whose turn it was to feed Picky-picky, the old yellow cat, whose towel had been left sopping in the bathtub, and whose dirty clothes had been left in whose half of the room. Ramona always said Beezus was bossy, because she was older. Beezus said Ramona always got her own way, because she was a baby and always made a fuss.
And now Beezus was angry that Ramona had shouted at the boys who had been teasing them in the playground. “When they called me Beezus Measles, Ramona stuck out her tongue. I just about died, I was so embarrassed,” she told her mother.
Mrs. Quimby said, “Don’t worry, Beatrice. If the boys tease you, just hold your head high and ignore them. When they see they can’t provoke you, they will stop.”
(A pause in the action of fighting here, and in the dialogue. Probably, the audience sees the look the sisters exchange, the mother doesn't. Does she know they exchanged a look behind her back anyway? That'll show up on her expression, as she halts in her dialogue.)
The two sisters forgot their fight for the moment. They exchanged a look of complete understanding. They both knew this was the sort of advice easy for adults to give but difficult for children to follow. If the boys remembered, Beezus would have to listen to “Beezus Measles” for months before they gave up.
(The action calms now, and goes to everyday things. No dialogue for a while. The atmosphere seems to be a comfortable, family atmosphere, but there is scope for the actors to interpret that the sisters are still seething from the quarrel they've just had.)
Beezus shrugged. Ramona picked up her crayons, went to the dining table, and started to draw. She was drawing Puss in Boots, and looked for her red crayon to colour his boots. It was missing.
“Beezus, have you seen my red crayon?”
“Um-um.” Without looking up from the book she was reading, Beezus waved her hand in the direction of the chair she usually sat on at the dining table.
(A pause, or not -- ? A smirk from the older sister, a gasp from the younger one -- ?)
Peace between the sisters could not last. Ramona saw the broken remains of her red crayon lying on the chair. “Who broke my crayon?” she demanded.
“You shouldn’t leave your crayon on other people’s chairs, where it can get sat on.” Beezus did not even look up from her book.
Ramona found this answer annoying. “You should look where you sit,” she said. “And don’t be so bossy.”
(I don't see any pauses in the following dialogue.)
“This is my chair. Here’s where you left your crayon.” Beezus glanced at her sister.
“I don’t have any place to put anything,” Ramona replied.
“Pooh,” said Beezus. “You are just careless and messy.”
Ramona was indignant. “I am not careless and messy!”
“Yes, you are,” said Beezus. “You don’t hang up your clothes, and you leave your toys all over.”
(There may be a pause here, for Ramona to think up her comeback,and another for Beezus to think up hers -- or not.)
“Just because the clothes bar is easy for you to reach,” said Ramona, “and you think you are too big for your toys.”
“Besides,” said Beezus, who did not like to be interrupted when she was deep in a good book, “you’re a pest.”
* * * * * * * * *
Well, the next time you're writing a script, when you put that comma, that word 'pause' or any other indicator of a pause, try to understand how the director and actor are going to take it, and pass it to the audience!
On with the show, 
Sonali.
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Picture the pauses! Hear the pauses! ... and ... please ...
Feel the pauses!
All the world's a stage. What role are you currently playing?
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Drama: July 01, 2009 Issue [#3118]
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