Dietz Post: On Short Plays

So after Tuesday's peer editing a major question came up.

What exactly qualifies as a ten minute play? I mean what is the difference between a scene and a really short play? And perhaps if there is no clear answer other than "a beginning, middle, and end" then I would love to know what we as a class look for in a ten minute play.

I'm not asking necessarily on a structural level as much as, what do we look for taste-wise?. As simply those being entertained, do we want all loose ends tied up? Do we prefer something hanging open? Do we want characters fully established, or do we want some of the details filled in by our own imaginations?

I know that generically, its all up to whatever the writer wants, but say the writer wants to please the audience, I'd love to hear what we as a focus group of an audience would look for because when it came time to the "question" and "opinion" portion of our peer editing, these were the things the group tossed around, and no one could clearly state whether they were issues we even should be tossing around. So if we have time, I think it'd be really great to talk about it together in class. I'd LOVE to get some collective feedback.