Stakes: The Big Five

Love

Death

Family

Power

History

The Big Five Stakes. Five buckets that I dip into when I need to find what’s at risk for each character. The Big Five generate conflict and conflict is the juice that keeps a narrative humming. When the stakes go up, so does the audience’s attention. Doesn’t matter if it’s a novel, a play, a film, a memoir, even an article on Thracian coins. The higher the stakes the better. If I find myself watching a film and not caring about the characters, chances are the stakes are too low. I have no idea where or when I found The Big Five. I probably read about them in a book. If you know who created them first, please tell me so I can thank them.

Shakespeare uses all five stakes in his plays. Pick a play and you’ll see them in there. You’ll also see all five in Tom Stoppard’s LEOPOLDSTADT, Lynn Nottage’s RUINED, and WHAT THE CONSTITUTION MEANS TO ME by Heidi Schreck. Why do films in the MCU draw such huge audiences? The writers use all five stakes in every film. If I can’t employ five, I will at least put in four. OK, so now I’m going to pull them apart:

LOVE

As my father says, “Love is all there is.” Love can be deep, careless, romantic, or familial. It can be narcissistic or altruistic. When love is part of the story, the stakes are always high.

DEATH

It changes lives! This morning I realized that I’d included four out of the five stakes in my new play. I’d left out death. So, I killed someone off. One of my characters now suffers a loss from which they haven’t begun to recover. It’s thrown them off kilter. They bring that loss with them onto the stage, and it raises the stakes for everyone in the play.

FAMILY

There are so many kinds of families: biological, chosen, work-related, spiritually related, you get it. When relationships within a family are thrown into conflict, boom! High stakes.

POWER

Whenever someone has control over a person or a group and they use it, it’s a high stakes situation. Power comes in many different forms, too. Money is power. So is physical domination. Another way to think about power: who wants it and what will they do to get it? Or, who lacks power and how does that drive manifest in their actions?

HISTORY

Look at August Wilson’s THE PIANO LESSON and Sanaz Toosi’s ENGLISH. Both plays revolves around historical events. Think about societal pressures that are ingrained from birth. Those are the kind of stakes that give a work extra heft.

I’ve used The Big Five for years. Recently I ran into a former student and after we hugged, she said, “Love, death, family, power, history.” No, “How are you? What’s new?” She just repeated the Big Five back to me. I have students who put them on a Post-It note and paste them on their computer. Earlier this year I coached a director who was about to write a show for a large cast of undergrads. He wanted some advice before he started. I told him this: he needed to know what every one of his characters wanted and he needed to include the Big Five. I saw his show and it not only worked, it was beautiful. I’ve learned over the years, to think less about being clever, and more about what motivates a character. What they’re willing to love for, die for, do for their family, finagle to get power and the history that’s either a burden or a blessing to them. I may not know it all when I start but I damn well need to make sure the stakes are high before I share my first draft.