Story outline in coarse plays (8)
I believe the answer is:
scenario
'story outline' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'in coarse plays' is the wordplay.
'plays' indicates an anagram.
'in'+'coarse'='incoarse'
'incoarse' with letters rearranged gives 'SCENARIO'.
(Other definitions for scenario that I've seen before include "Storyline" , "Dramatic situation" , "Written outline of a film, novel, or stage work" , "Story outline" , "plotting for a film" .)