Introduction The primary purpose of a speech is to convince.  A speech is not a lecture, an information system, a documentary, or a narrative.  It is an argument by the speaker for or against a particular system of thoughts and actions.  Objections have to be confronted and overcome through persuasion.  As a theater person, I see the speaker as an actor -- an artist who performs before an audience -- or as a lion tamer in a dangerous arena.  Anything can happen at any moment.  A speech should have the suspense of a tightrope walker, and thereby rivet our attention and enthrall us; as does the speaker who establishes his ability through his speech.  It has been discovered during the past twenty years  just how often a theater group has taken on the role of the local community leader. Actors and others involved in theatrical activities have become leaders at various levels and in different areas.  Over the years I built a special course, ‘Leadership through Drama,’ the aim of which was to reinforce local leadership through the use of available dramatic and theatrical tools.  We attempted to achieve the same results that develop from an actor’s work in the theater, but this time in reverse-- starting from the end of the process -- from ordinary community leader toward dramatic activities.  We arranged a course for a group of local community leaders, similar to a preparatory course for actors.  The group was selected after an interview process.  The course included analysis of leaders and  their dealings with the public; creating and presenting a political persona to the public; speechmaking -- writing, directing, and presenting to the public; acting in front of the camera and microphone; etc.  Above all, emphasis was placed on understanding the dramatic motives that lead an actor to face the audience.  During the course, we increasingly encountered parallels between the political meeting and the theatrical event, which is a meeting between actor and audience with a mutual agreement to ‘play a social game’ called ‘theater,’ in the same way that political meetings are comprised of an audience and a speaker/actor who agree to ‘play a social game’ called politics.’ Both these social games gain their sustenance from drama.  In the theater this is a purely artistic drama, presented before an audience in the framework of a play by the actor.  The drama in a political event, on the other hand, is part of the dramatic reality presented by the speaker to an audience within the framework of the speech. The purpose of this article is to examine those parallels between the drama of a theatrical play and that of the political speech, as well as the presentation of the speech as a true ‘performance’ -- in this case a ‘monodrama.’  In the following, I shall provide speech writers with ten working principles that parallel the principles of creating a play. Theatrical and Political Events The theater is a collective art incorporating a variety of individual arts that together create the ‘play,’ in the same way that a collection of individuals combines to form the audience.  Theatrical events are basically political, in that they bring together a variety of ordinary citizens for a mutual purpose at a mutual time and place.  Despite this, we do not relate to theatrical events in the same way as we do to political ones; we relate to them as an encounter for the purpose of an artistic experience.  Again, those same individuals who meet at a particular place (the theater), at a particular time (the play), and for a particular purpose (the artistic experience), have agreed amongst themselves to play a social game that creates the theater and the artistic experience alone -- without any other socio-political agreement. The political meeting is also, however, a collective ‘art.’  It too is composed of several arts that combine to form the ‘play,’ as well as a collection of individuals who create the audience and arrive at a mutually agreed-upon place and time for the purpose of watching their own particular reality in the form of a speech. In the first case, the theatrical event is aimed at playing the game of art in all its dimensions.  In the second case, the political event comes into use as an artistic theatrical system fulfilling the political needs of a society.  Having now determined the analogy between the two, in order to establish a political event with artistic/theatrical/dramatic components, we must relate to the event in the same way as artists relate to a theatrical event.  A.  Creating the drama In a theatrical event, drama is the purpose and main component of the encounter between audience and actor.  The conditions that create drama possess the same characteristics in presenting both plays and speeches.  It is inconceivable that a play could be staged without the central drama that constitutes the ‘motor’ of the theatrical event.  Likewise, speeches are presented in front of an audience: their inherent drama form the ‘motor,’ without which it would not be possible to ‘drive’ the audience to different ‘places,’ or viewpoints, etc.  (On creating drama in a speech, see section ‘The Dramatic Play and the Dramatic Speech,’ below). B.  Establishing an audience environment The political meeting is a social encounter and thus requires, first and foremost, a location, a structure, and the cohesion of a social group -- the audience.  In non-socially targeted theatrical plays, however, a particular location is chosen for the audience, and this location determines the process of discourse between the ‘play’ and the audience.  Should the spectators be seated indoors or outside?  Frontal seating or circular?  Should the encounter take place in a town square or in City Hall?  Should the audience be seated below or above stage level?  All these questions and many others confront the planners of a theatrical event.  In many cases there are pressures regarding location.  Overcoming these problems in order to stage a theatrical event is an inseparable part of creating the play.  The planners of a political meeting must also take into account the environment in which the meeting will take place.  An important political event may fail simply because of an unsuitable choice of location. C.  Creating the play  A staged play is the expression of full cooperation between the various artistic elements.  If one of these elements dominates the others (for better or for worse), it will ‘spoil’ the entire show.  Speeches, like plays, are an artistic composition: the elements they comprise are words, movement, sound, and music, as well as the art of speech, design, and the entire range of visual elements.  All of these combine into a single performance.  Beautiful words issued through a faulty delivery will say nothing; and if the delivery is perfect -- each word a pearl of wisdom -- but the voice of the speaker resembles a hoarse crow, once again the ‘staging’ of the speech will be imperfect.  A speech may be the best in the world, but if it is presented to the wrong audience it will be neither heard correctly nor understood.  It can be seen, therefore, that a great deal more must be dealt with than the written word alone.  D.  Staging the event If, as mentioned asserted, the speech constitutes a complex system like a ‘play,’ then it should be produced accordingly.  Correct use of the different elements that will combine to present the speech must be planned in advance, and they should be suitably integrated into the final product to be presented to the audience.  The actual performance of the speech by the speaker himself or herself is actually the end product, just as the theatrical event is the end product of its combined components. The Dramatic Play and the Dramatic Speech A well-made dramatic play is constructed according to the following: exposition, conflict or plot, and solution.   The exposition presents the foundations upon which the drama is built; it is a composition of characters and environment. The conflict makes its appearance with the knowledge gained from the exposition.  Complications emerge and a dramatic conflict arises against the background of the characters, place, and/or time. The solution arrives at the end, with the triumph of one of the characters or sides over another, etc. Dramatic speech parallel plays in the following ways: The exposition contains the basic assumption.  Persuasion comes into play with the presentation of the opinions that conflict with the basic assumption.  Having presented both sides of the argument, the speech then provides a solution.  In both cases -- play and speech -- the conflict serves as a dramatic focal point through which the argument between the main theme or proposal and conflicting ideas is presented.  (David Ben-Gurion, who possessed an instinctive understanding of the significance of drama, used to say: “If you have a small problem for which there is no solution, turn it into a large problem and it will have to be solved.”) Looking at the speech as a monodrama, it can be seen that its style is similar to that of a social drama, which is built upon placing the conflict before the spectators and their cooperation in the ensuing dramatic event.  If so, then it is possible to return to the method of constructing a social play and to follow the exact same steps in systematically creating the speech.  Stages in the production of drama a) Sources.  A search for dramatic sources constitutes the initial step in any dramatic activity.  Impressions are acquired through surveys, observations, involvement, asking questions, and collecting the various materials from which the drama will eventually develop.  The search for sources can be a social, group, or community effort, and it can also stem from a personal viewpoint: one can find drama within oneself, in one’s personal story.  In the latter case the work will constitute an artistic effort that is not intended to be a part of the communal drama.  b) Documentation.  Having collected the sources, we now have a documentary ‘file’ of the subject -- written material, photographs, tape recordings, etc.  The more material this file contains, the more it will assist us in understanding the complexity of the drama in its entirety.  c) Creating the drama.  This is the decisive stage.  Preparations have been completed and we are about to write the play itself, plan the event, and arrive purposefully at the theater.  Playwrights can on occasion ’get stuck’ in the middle of writing if they do not have enough material collected in the earlier stages.  Source collection and documentation constitute a pre-production phase to the play or theatrical event. d) Producing the drama.  At this stage the entire production team gets together -- playwright, director, actors, musicians, scene designers, and others, all partners in the same drama. e) Staging the drama.  Unlike literary works, dramatic writing is intended to be staged before an audience.  The audience is therefore an integral part of the drama, and the playwright must bear the potential audience in mind as a partner to the dialogue.  (See Principle 8, below: Dramatic dialogue). f) Organizing the drama.  What sort of audience will we be facing?  How many performances do we intend to give?  Where will it be staged?  What sort of space will be at our disposal -- outdoor, indoor, large, small?   All these and many questions must be discussed right from outset of creating the drama. The answers will have a significant bearing on the entire dramatic process. Having outlined these six stages, we can now examine their applicability to creating a speech. Sources: Every speech writer has an obligation to determine the most relevant details.  These will constitute the foundation upon which the speech will be built.  It is assumed that the chosen details will not be trivial, because a speech based upon trivialities will have little effect.  Each detail incorporated into the speech should contain the ’drama,’ which in turn becomes the ‘instrument’ to activate the detail itself.  Documentation: Without organized documentation, the speaker will be unable to present the dramatic details to his or her audience.  The speaker’s obligation is to verify the findings of the completed documentation upon which the speech will be based.  Creating the drama: At this stage, the speaker has documentation based on the full collection of dramatic sources.  He or she can now write or prepare the dramatic speech according to the ten principals that will be presented below.  (See: Ten Basic Principles in Creating a Political/Dramatic Speech).  Producing the drama: Producing a speech is identical in all stages to producing a play (see below). Staging the drama: Staging a speech, like producing it, is also identical to staging a play (see below). Organizing the drama: Here too, the speech will almost certainly be used by the speaker at various times and locations.  However, perhaps it is to be written specifically for a one-time event, or perhaps it should have universal appeal?  During this stage the speech will undergo modifications according to the requirements of different communities. If these six preliminary stages have been thoroughly considered and planned, then we are now ready to prepare the speech itself.  At this stage the Ten Basic Principles method goes into action, and accompanies each and every stage of the work from the writing to the directing and finally to the performance itself.    The Ten Basic Principles For Creating A Dramatic Speech Method and application: Before analyzing and studying the method of speechwriting according to the ten principles, it should be noted that I do not conceive of this system, or indeed any other, as a fixed formula for creating a dramatic work; neither do I possess a ’formula’ for any type of artistic speech.  This method is simply an additional tool for use by those whose work in the social fields requires this type of artistic or political creativity.  The ’ten basic principles’ method offers an approach to analyzing a speech during the process of its creation and staging.  It can also be used to analyze the speech in its concrete form or after its presentation to an audience.  The ten principles that follow in order of importance constitute a tool for creating any speech, whether political or aimed at any other social purpose.  However, it should be noted that this tool is just that -- an instrument, and not content-matter in itself.  I do not believe that any method exists to create content, other than the will and ability of the creator himself or herself.    The ten principles: 1) Subject.  2) Statement.  3) Situation.  4) Storyline. 5) Characters.  6) Place.  7) Time.  8) Dramatic Dialogue.  9) Style or concept.  10) Language. 1) Subject The subject is the main point of the speech.  It should state, in one sentence, and sometimes even in one word, the speech’s content and meaning.  A long, rambling definition of the subject is a clear-cut sign of a speech lacking in basic dramatic qualities.  Even if more than one subject is to be raised in the speech, there will always be one central theme upon which the emphasis will be laid and around which the secondary themes will revolve.  For example: The main subject of Churchill’s speech prior to the outbreak of World War II was ’The Approaching War’; the main subject of Nixon’s speech before his resignation was ’An enforced departure.’ If you begin to write a speech without a defined subject, you are setting off on a very hard path indeed.  If the speech’s subject is not clear -- if it requires interpretation and explanation -- if it does not contain drama -- then this will hinder the entire production.  We will find ourselves foundering in a confused speech written (perhaps by the speaker him or herself) without any central theme to hold onto.  The subject is always the common focal point for the speech writer and the rest of the ’production team.’  If, upon staging the drama, the subject has dramatic significance, involving a conflict, then it is possible that we may have a good story or a good lecture -- but we do not necessarily have a central dramatic theme -- and therefore no speech.  For instance, while the subject ’relationship’ is not dramatic in itself, the subjects ’forbidden relationship’ or ’secret relationship’ have inherent drama.  In the same way, while ’childhood’ is not in itself dramatic, a ’difficult,’ ’lost,’ or ’distant childhood’ are subjects charged with meaning.  Here any image that contains an antithesis to childhood can be a preliminary main subject for creating the relevant drama. In summary: a) The subject requires a clear and briefly defined statement; b) The subject should possess dramatic quality. 2) The Statement If we wished to tell a story for its own sake, we could allow ourselves a tale without a moral or statement.  I deliberately employ the word ’statement’ rather than ’message,’ because ’message’ involves different concepts.  The reason for using drama, and its power, lies in the desire to make a totally clear statement; and, as with the subject, if the statement cannot be summarized in one clear sentence we will be setting off on our journey either overburdened or under provisioned.    To return to the example of Churchill’s speech, we see that his statement later became a slogan: “I promise you blood, sweat and tears.”  Churchill’s ’promise’ shortly before the approaching war was fully realized, when his statement “blood, sweat and tears” was experienced in all its horror throughout the world.  Nixon’s departure from the office of President of the United States was an enforced one.  Although his strong statement in his resignation speech -- “I am not a quitter” -- did not greatly help him, it nonetheless stood out like a scarlet thread throughout his emotional speech.  The statement will be determined immediately after the choice of subject.  In fact, it defines and limits the subject.  Whatever the statement, it should be made in one single clear and comprehensible sentence.  If this sentence requires explanation, then the speech’s statement is defective, and may end in spoiling the speech itself.  In summary: a) The statement is the outcome of the speech. b) The statement should be made in one clear sentence, without additional explanation. 3) The dramatic situation Here, in fact, is where the method comes into play and the speech begins to develop.  A dramatic situation must be found upon which to construct the speech.  The dramatic situation is the main point of a play, and without it we have no link to drama or dramatic literature.  Without a dramatic situation we can create many other things -- but not drama.  We have undertaken to construct a well-made dramatic speech in much the same way as we construct a monodrama.  In this case too we can determine whether we have a ’healthy’ and stable dramatic situation, by defining it in one or two sentences.  If we cannot focus on a meaningful dramatic situation in two sentences, then we have a problem with the very core of the speech, which will in turn lead to serious problems in its production.  For clarification, let us return once more to Churchill’s speech.  War is on the horizon; nervous tension prevails.  The dramatic situation in Churchill’s speech is ’the British setting off to war against the Germans.’  We now possess the first three principles in Churchill’s speech: the subject -- impending war; the statement -- blood, sweat, and tears; and the situation -- Britain setting off to war against Germany.  In Nixon’s speech the dramatic situation is that of the resignation of the President of the United States, set against a background of criminal activity.  The three first principles are therefore: subject -- departure; statement -- I am not a quitter; situation -- the U.S. President resigns due to criminal accusations.  To return once more to an earlier example, the subject ‘difficult childhood’ with a different statement can become a different play, in just the same way as different dramatic situations will lead to different plays.  In summary:  a) The dramatic situation should expressed in one or two sentences at most; otherwise it is unclear and suffers from a flawed central structure; b) The dramatic situation and the central conflict are the core of the play, and thus the core of the speech. 4) The storyline The art of the story speaks for itself and I shall not go into detail here.  Every drama has a storyline.  Within the dramatic framework of a play the story is secondary to the drama, but nevertheless is an intrinsic part of the plot.  The storyline is the most specific element of the speech -- what exactly happened?  Such and such happened … -- this is the ’full story,’ before the curtain rises and after it falls.  What will happen to the characters after the play is over; what happened to them before it began; where did the events occur before; and what will be left after the end of the play and the dramatic situation?  The specific storyline will clearly determine all the actions of all the characters.  The storyline, if written in advance of the play, can become a vital source for a well-equipped approach to the dramatic situation.  A speech that does not incorporate a storyline -- in addition to the subject, statement, and dramatic situation -- will be a ’dry’  or perhaps ‘academic’ speech.  The storyline is a vital part of creating the specific, personal link with the audience.  By means of the story, greater emotional audience participation will be achieved.  In summary: The dramatic situation lies at the heart of the speech.  The storyline provides the framework for the dramatic situation and a direct and detailed link with the emotions of the audience.  Every desired detail can be inserted into it, according to the capacity of the speaker and of the audience.  5) The characters  A dramatic play involves characters.  If the dramatic speech is a sort of monodrama, then the speaker is the central figure.  However, alongside this central figure there will also appear other imaginary characters -- those to whom the speaker refers.  When the speaker performs, he or she is in fact ’acting’ the part of a dramatic character who presents spoken words in the framework of a speech.  The other characters will be ’played’ by the speaker exactly as he himself would like to see them played to an audience.  He may distort them, or make them greater than life.  Perhaps he will diminish them in order to strengthen his argument.  (Observe in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar how Anthony in his speech depicts Brutus and company: “For Brutus is an honorable man; so are they all honorable men.”  When he reiterates this several times during his speech, Brutus and company become increasingly subject to mockery; finally the crowd turns against them.)  In speeches made shortly before the outbreak of war, such as that of Churchill’s, the speaker will depict the character of the enemy as an antagonist, according to the rules of dramatic conflict.  The mother, vulnerable to her sons’ potential injury or death, will be depicted in the speech as a character that must be defended.  And, of course, the ’heroes’ (the protagonists) will come to her defense against the cruel enemy.  In summary: a) The speech, like the play, requires the ‘construction’ of credible dramatic characters.  b) The speaker is the main character who presents him or herself, as well as the other characters ’hidden’ from the audience’s view. 6) The place The place in which the subject, statement, dramatic situation, storyline, and characters all occur will, if located elsewhere, create a different play.  (Shakespeare’s setting of Hamlet in Elsinore in Denmark was deliberate -- what would have happened if he had set the play in a castle in England?  Could Shakespeare have continued to write plays in Britain?) A speech given in an open town square is subject to different rules than a speech in closed room; a speech made in a cemetery will have a totally different structure than a speech made to children in their school auditorium; etc. A written speech must take into account the location and time of the event just as if it were a theatrical or dramatic event.  The very existence of the speech in one dimension or another can completely change its significance.  On television it will appear one way, and on the stage of a theater it will appear in another.  The main auditorium of the United Nations is not the family living room.  The place will dictate the dramatic basis of the speech, which should therefore be prepared accordingly.    7) The time Time is a dramatic component.  It can constitute the foundation for any drama.  A speech that does not take into account the significance of time may let the speaker down.  Two temporal components exist: the actual time and the time to which the speaker relates.   If a speaker wishes to rely on historical elements, he or she should present a dramatic historical situation from history.  In this way he or she will be acting like the playwright who distances the drama from the present by invoking a historical past, and thus provides an analogue with the present situation.  Just as the time to which the speech relates, whether past or present, should be specific and clear, so too should be the actual timing of the speech: before or after a crisis; on a holiday or work day; morning or evening; a short or a long speech; and so on. 8) Dramatic dialogue The dramatic dialogue in a social play is mainly between the play and its audience; so too in a political or dramatic speech: the speech is a dialogue with an audience.  Speakers are almost certainly not speaking to themselves or to their colleagues on the platform.  In every speech, the dramatic dialogue is with the audience, and it is necessary to discern whether the audience is the antagonist and the speaker the protagonist.  For an example, we can examine the fiery speeches of the prophet at the gates, or of evangelical preachers (who turn directly to their audience, taking their guilt for granted, and loudly proclaim their message of morality).  In another example, the speaker may present himself of herself as the antagonist for the purpose of the speech, with the audience as protagonist, and the speech will be placatory and full of flattery, regret, apology, etc.  In this case, the speaker is a sort of ’sacrificial lamb’ on the audience’s altar.  (It is unlikely that any normal politician would wish to deliver this sort of speech voluntarily!) Every audience requires a different sort of dramatic dialogue which will in turn alter the significance of the speech.  A speech directed at one particular audience but presented to another will appear in a different light.  A hostile audience will receive a different dramatic dialogue than a friendly one, despite the speech having the same subject and statement, and most certainly the same dramatic situation.  If the speaker plays the part of an ’insider’ to the audience -- ’one of us’ -- the speech will invoke specific names and places, familiar to the listeners, but none of which would have any relevance for an audience unfamiliar with the speaker.  If speakers amuse themselves with a flowery speech but fail to establish a dramatic dialogue with the audience, the result is a ‘good’ speech that has no audience. 9) Style or concept  The style or concept cannot be chosen haphazardly.  The speech writer makes a deliberate choice of whether the speech will be written, for example, in a poetic or a symbolic style.  Perhaps a deliberate choice of comic or satirical style will be made, or grotesque elements will be employed.  There is a reason for choice of style -- it constitutes the ’sting’ of the dramatic speech.  Even those speech writers or speakers who are associated with a particular style will slightly adapt that style when the situation demands it.  Reading from a written speech is also a style, one chosen not only because the speaker has not learnt the contents by heart.  Improvising a speech according to listeners’ reactions is another style, as are haranguing an audience, or flattering it, or using pathos, etc. Just as the style and concept finalize the contract between the writer and his or her work, so too is the case with creative speaker.  A choice of style is his or her personal statement as well as the contract between speaker and speech as a dramatic, literary work. 10) Language A play is usually written in the mother-tongue of the writer or of the country in which it is written.  Translations come later.  Writers from many different countries translate plays into their own language and adapt them for the local stage with its own local perceptions.  A speech does not benefit from all the privileges of drama.  The choice of language is fundamental; not every speaker can speak every language.  Sometimes, if the speaker is to speak in foreign country, he or she will have no choice but to have the speech translated, whether simultaneously or otherwise.  Let us assume, however, that you have the choice of any language.  It is unlikely that you would choose a language different to that of your audience! Nonetheless, knowledge of one language is not always a substitute for another.  (For example, Abba Eban, a noted linguist, gave speeches in many languages.  Audiences, however, preferred to hear him speak Hebrew.) If you come from one particular ethnic community in the U.S., for example, perhaps the use of words or phrases in your native tongue can induce a greater identification on the part of your audience with the subject matter.  For members of certain communities in Israel, speaking in their native tongue rather than Hebrew puts them at a disadvantage, particularly within the same ethic group.  This is sometimes seen as a failure of the speaker to ’assimilate’ into the general Israeli society, having remained an ethnic individual rather than a national one. Some audiences, such as children, adolescents, or various other population groups, possess their own language.  A speech given to children requires knowledge of contemporary ’children’s language,’ just as using the appropriate slang will bring the speaker closer to the adolescent experience. Language is a communication tool.  In certain cases it is also a dramatic one.  The choice of language for a speech, if taken into account in advance, will take care of a considerable portion of the speaker’s ’work’.    Examples I present below several brief examples for the sake of additional clarity.  However, keep in mind that an example is only an example and does not necessarily prove a general rule.    Example 1: A speech for a local neighborhood cut off from the city. (Note that this is a fictional example.) A group of young local people are active in a certain neighborhood in the center of Israel.  Following many meetings and discussions it was decided to carry out a local survey to determine whether the inhabitants really were suffering from a lack of communication between the municipality and the specific neighborhood.  (Sources) The survey did indeed reveal all the deficiencies that were a consequence of the big city’s detachment from the local neighborhood, which had a population of 20,000 inhabitants.  (In other places the area could have legally opted to become an autonomous local authority. It was found that the neighborhood was isolated physically, geographically, and socially, as well as religiously and politically.  All the findings were compiled.  (Documentation)     The group decided to tackle the situation and began by arranging meetings with local audiences and those from the big city, as well as organizing demonstrations throughout the country.   The following is an example of a ’scenario’ for a speech prepared by the head of the activist group. Subject: Independence for the neighborhood as an autonomous authority.  Statement: We are a time bomb within the city.  Situation: The neighborhood’s youth are failing their matriculation examinations due to a crisis in the local education system.  Their dejection is leading to drug abuse. Storyline: The neighborhood is a substitute for a transit camp built on the sand dunes across the main road.  For years it was dependent on various political factors, until the neighboring big city came along and was ’given’ the area, with all its attendant problems, and became responsible for its administration. At this point we encounter the personal stories of various group members born in the neighborhood, who have overcome the hardships and succeeded in breaking out of the vicious circle of extreme poverty.  (From here, of course, the storyline can continue in any way that appeals to the imagination of the writer). Characters: Gabby -- the speaker; Mr. Schwartz -- Mayor of the big city (an unseen but familiar figure); Jack -- a native of the problem neighborhood, has a doctorate in mathematics (one of the group activists); Guy, Dan, Ronnie, Iris -- local youths with a drug problem (sitting in the audience); Sam and Rina -- the Mayor’s son and daughter (unseen characters); Rosa -- the speaker’s mother (unseen); neighborhood inhabitants.  (Note that here too, each character telling a tale will receive its own explanation, situation, subject, statement, storyline, etc.) Place: The town square outside the municipality. Time: Winter.  Day.  Afternoon.  (The neighborhood inhabitants have declared an all-out strike at both workplaces and schools). Dramatic dialogue: The local inhabitants against the municipality.  (The audience is in the town square, and includes local citizens and passersby.) Style: Vehement argument.  Language: Hebrew. The following can serve as a useful exercise: a) Write a speech given the above criteria. b) Try to ’transfer’ the speaker to a school, speaking to a parents’ organization.  What will change? c) Try to transfer the speech to cable television.  What will happen to the style? d) The speaker will mention his personal story and those of his mother and Jack, as well as the stories of the drug-addicted youths.  In contrast, he will present the mayor’s children, who have been educated in the city’s centralized education system etc.  Will he speak and act in the same way when he faces the Parliamentary committee to present the same subject and statement?  If he does not make use of the same characters, who will he use?  What characters would you suggest be added? e) Choose another style and examine its effect on place and time.    Example 2: A speech intended for International Children’s Day. Subject: battered children. Statement: a battered child will become a violent parent. Situation: the struggle of a violent mother to prevent her daughter being taken into custody. Storyline: Rita has been divorced for two years.  She lives with her four-year-old daughter Tal.  Unable to control herself, the mother daily turns her child into a punching bag upon whom she takes out her anger.  The neighborhood complains, the police intervene, the social services are called upon to deal with the case, and a social worker advises that the daughter be taken out of her mother’s custody. Characters: Dr. Mira Goldreich -- the speaker; Rita -- the mother; Alma -- the social worker. Place: The Hilton Hotel, at a fundraising evening to establish the Association for the Protection of Battered Children. Time: International Children’s Day. Dramatic dialogue: Leaders of the Association to the contributors’ childhoods.  Style -- Preaching, with use of poetic elements, and incorporating realistic tales from the lives of unseen characters.  (The contrast between styles is deliberately chosen to shock the audience, who have only just finished the dinner given in honor of the event).   Summary  At first glance, the Ten Principles suggested here for creating a dramatic speech may give the impression that this is an absolute system -- against which the speechwriter may well ask: “On whose authority?  And what about that same straightforward, uninterrupted writing that develops intuitively?”  My reply is that, of course, I have absolutely nothing against this.  In such a case the method can be used to examine the product in retrospect, following the inspired creativity.  The proposed system can serve as tool for a balanced, relevant assessment for modifying, polishing, and clarifying the speech -- all the tasks that follow directly after inspiration and intuition.  Those who wish to examine the system ’at work’ can do so by applying it to ’successful’ speeches.  The more successful the speech, the more completely it will appear to be structured according to this method.  If we subscribe to these ten principles, we are providing ourselves with a ‘safety net’ for the writing and production of the speech, and with a ‘fine mesh sieve’ for its analysis.  If the speechwriters follow these guidelines step by step, they will possess a useful tool that will help them avoid confusion and writer’s block -- those enemies of any creative process, and most assuredly of every speaker.  I conclude with a statement by an actor from the Cameri theater, the late Arieh Kassbiner: ’Talent, though -- that you have to bring from home’.