What is Subtext?
What you leave a lot out of in the dialogue is Subtext.
Pushing this just beneath the surface of the dialogue is what makes plays exciting and helps keep audiences in their seats.
Subtext is the unspoken thoughts and motives of your characters -- what they really think and believe.
In well-written dialogue, Subtext seldom breaks through the surface of the dialogue except in moments of extreme Conflict.At other times, it colours the dialogue. Another way of looking at this . . .
Subtext is Content Underneath The Spoken Dialogue
And subtext gives the performers something to do. If you let your characters tell each other everything they think or feel, actors can't do what they're trained to do best: revealing through gesture, intonation, and expression, the real essence of a character.===============================================
EXAMPLE OF SUBTEXT FROM THE INTERNET
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This site is 'Radio Drama Techniques - Training as a radio drama director'.
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The url of this site, 'Radio Drama Techniques', is: www.savoyhill.co.uk/technique To Alan Beck's Radio Hub at http://www.savoyhill.co.uk To Alan Beck's HOME PAGE at www.savoyhill.co.uk/alan See more of Alan Beck's work at http://interact.uoregon.edu/MediaLit/WFAE/readings/beck/ IF YOU HAVE COMMENTS, PLEASE EMAIL TO : aebb@kent.ac.uk Use QUESTIONS - 'HOW DO I' - to navigate this site.