The play analysis should answer at least for of the following criteria:
Theme
The theme should be clear from action of the play without being directly stated by the playwright.
The theme must be inherently dramatic and theatrical.
Plot
In the first scene the action should begin immediately and the exposition should be brief and integrated in plot or characterization.
The scenes should create a continual forward movement of interrelated events which ask and answer a series of questions.
The scenes should reveal variety in pace and mood.
The scenes should build to a climax or crisis in which the pervasive dramatic question is resolved in a rapid, exciting solution.
Audience participation should develop out of plot and characterization.
Character
The characters must be individuals who are clearly motivated.
The leading character or characters must be ones with whom the audience may identify.
Characterization should be achieved through what the characters say and do rather than through what others say about them.
The relationships between the characters must be interesting and clear at all times.
Dialogue
The dialogue must delineate character.
Long speeches must be used sparingly and only when the action requires it.
While dialogue may be poetic if the play requires, it must be dramatic at all times.
Anachronisms must be avoided in dialogue written for period plays.
Verbal wit, puns, play on words inverted words, malapropisms, and clichés must be carefully selected.
Song
The songs in a musical must further the action, deepen the characterization, or create an atmosphere essential to the play.
For musicals the lyrics must sound as if they belong to the characters who sing them.
In musicals the high point of action should be told in song and dance.
Spectacle
The play should not require extraneous scenic effects.
If the action of the play is written is a series of locales, the scenic demands must be simple.
The plays must be dramatized pictorially with a variety of visual effects.
