writing 'story theatre'

Story Theatre sits somewhere between oral storytelling, ensemble theatre and playwriting. You’re not “writing scenes” in the traditional way so much as composing an event where narration and enactment constantly trade places.

1. Start with a tellable story

Choose a story that wants to be spoken aloud.

Good sources:

• Folktales, myths, legends

• Personal or family stories

• Historical anecdotes

• Parables or tall tales

If the story collapses without realism or psychological backstory, it may not be right for Story Theatre.

2. Break the story into beats, not scenes

Instead of scenes, identify narrative beats:

• Introduction of the world

• Inciting incident

• Repetition/escalation

• Crisis

• Resolution

Each beat should be playable in multiple modes:

• spoken

• mimed

• embodied

• shared among the ensemble

Write these beats as paragraphs of narration, not dialogue.

3. Treat narration as action

In Story Theatre, narration is performance.

Instead of:

JOHN enters the forest.

Write:

JOHN says, “I entered the forest, where the trees leaned in to listen.”

Actors:

• narrate their own actions

• narrate others’ actions

• narrate the world itself

A single line of narration can trigger:

• movement

• sound

• tableau

• choral response

4. Use the ensemble as a storytelling instrument

The group is fluid and multifunctional.

Techniques to write in:

• Choral narration (“We followed him into the dark.”)

• Role switching (one actor becomes the wind, another becomes the door)

• Instant transformation (a hat, a gesture, a word creates a character)

• Contradictory narration (“Some say it was raining. Others swear it wasn’t.”)

Write cues like:

TWO ACTORS become the river. THE ENSEMBLE whispers the rumor.

Avoid locking actors into fixed roles unless necessary.

5. Keep dialogue spare and heightened

Dialogue in Story Theatre is:

• brief

• essential

• often quoted rather than enacted

Example:

She said, “I will never forgive you.” (Silence.) And that was worse than if she had screamed.

Dialogue lands harder when surrounded by narration.

6. Write for visible theatricality

Story Theatre loves:

• visible scene changes

• exposed artifice

• actors acknowledging the audience

• imagination over realism

You can write:

The house becomes a mountain. No one pretends it looks like one. Everyone agrees it is one.

This is permission, not instruction.

7. Leave space for invention

A Story Theatre script is often incomplete by design.

Intentionally include:

• open-ended staging moments

• lines that invite physical interpretation

• places where actors “find” the event in rehearsal

Think of the script as:

a score, not a blueprint

8. A simple template you can use

Here’s a barebones format:

TITLE

ENSEMBLE: (introduces the world)

NARRATOR 1: (sets the action)

ENSEMBLE: (becomes environment)

CHARACTER: (speaks one essential line)

NARRATOR 2: (reframes or contradicts)

ENSEMBLE: (resolves the moment)

Repeat with variation.

9. What Story Theatre is not

• Not realism

• Not literary narration read aloud

• Not improv without structure

• Not character psychology as the engine

It’s about collective meaning-making, not individual arcs.

For an example of a play written in the “story theatre” style, see the sample preview of my play Four Legs Good.