A Long Essay on a Short Play

Written by TMS Director of Creative Development & Mentor, Eric Webb

Hello, TheaterMakers!

I’ve expounded in this space before about my adoration of the 10-minute play and how it can be an indispensable exercise for emerging playwrights as well as an incredibly useful tool for networking and building your resume (seemingly every theater has a 10-minute play festival, and it’s a great way to get in the door of places you might want to pitch your other work to eventually!).

That adoration has not changed. 

However, I just attended a (relatively well-known) 10-minute play festival and I was shocked to see the number of “plays” on the stage that simply… weren’t plays.

They were 10 minutes long.

They were performed in a theater.

But they were not plays.

They were sketches, prologues, shaggy dog stories leading to a groan-inducing pun.

So how do we, as writers, recognize the difference and actually write a play?

I’m so glad you asked…

A sketch typically begins with a funny idea or comic situation.

"What if god was a baby?"

"What if Shakespeare wrote text messages?"

The humor comes from exploring the premise. You escalate the situation, repeating variations on the central joke until it reaches a satisfying punchline or absurd conclusion. Characters don’t typically change or have deeper wants or emotional arcs. The sketch succeeds if it consistently delivers laughs.

That's it. 

That’s not a play.

A joke is even more streamlined.

Every element serves a single purpose: delivering the punchline. Once the punchline is delivered, the joke is over. There may have been a beginning, middle, and end in structuring the joke… but nothing changed.

Not a play.

SO WHAT IS A FREAKING 10-MINUTE PLAY, THEN?

A 10-minute play must accomplish everything a full-length play does—just with incredible economy.

It needs:

• Characters who want something.
• Conflict that stands in the way.
• Rising action.
• Discovery or reversal.
• A climax.
• A meaningful resolution.

In other words, it tells a complete story with a beginning, a middle, and an end.

One of the biggest mistakes beginning playwrights make is confusing "short" with "simple."

The time limit doesn't change the fundamental nature of dramatic storytelling - it just demands greater precision.

A 10-minute play stands alone. It isn't a condensed first act. It isn't the opening scene of a larger work. It isn't an extended monologue with a clever ending.

It's a complete dramatic experience told through compression.

Because the format is short, some writers assume they need some sort of gimmick to stand out: a clever twist or surprise ending...

Those can certainly work (and believe me, I’ve written my fair share of these kinds of plays).

But audiences rarely remember a play solely because it fooled them.

They remember plays that made them feel something.

Even in ten minutes, characters can experience loss, hope, forgiveness, disappointment, joy, fear, or revelation. A genuine emotional shift—even a subtle one—often creates a more satisfying ending than a final punchline.

That's another major distinction from sketches.

A sketch aims for laughter.

A play aims for transformation.

Sometimes that transformation is funny. Sometimes it's heartbreaking. Sometimes it's both.

So yes, please… write all of the 10-minute plays! But remember…

The goal isn't to make something small.

The goal is to make something complete and transformative.

That’s a play.