How do they decide regarding acts in plays?

Question:How is it decided how many acts a play has?
How is it decided if a scene happpens in one act versus another?
Why aren't plays all just one big act?

I read the Wikipedia entry already.

Please answer all questions in order get a thumbs up.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: How is it decided how many acts a play has?
How is it decided if a scene happpens in one act versus another?
Why aren't plays all just one big act?

I read the Wikipedia entry already.

Please answer all questions in order get a thumbs up.

Classical plays had to have one act to correspond to each kind of action in a play -- exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution -- resulting in 5-act plays. This is not done anymore, and the decision of whether a play is one-act, two-act, or three-act can be arbitrary. Eugene O'Neill's Strange Interlude is 9 acts, but so much material is repeated that you wonder if the number is symbolic (pregnancy?) And some directors will insert an intermission anywhere they think the audience may need the chance to get up and stretch. Scenes are usually separated from each other by purpose or location. One scene's purpose may be to introduce a character or a scene may take place in someone's apartment and the following scene takes place on the street.

The writer decides it.

Most writers are trying to make a point. They are philosophizing or politicing to some degree and they construct their plays to make this point.

To do this the build the play in layers to move the audience along into their world and to see their point of view.

Unlike a book, which has many many acts and many many many locations, plays have to be based in realty.

They have to be "stageable."