Hmm, that's a pretty cryptic question! 'meaning' is a bit of a dirty word in some ways - we don't want to feel we're writing polemics, hitting people over the head with a message - but meaning is an important component of a story. Without meaning, any story is just a series of random events. Meaning is what we crave from stories, and what makes us want to write them.

I'm a bit with Debbie on this ... 'meaning' is a pretty loaded word. Meaning is defined as "what is meant by a word, text, concept, or action." (Oxford). Therefore we could extrapolate the suggestion to: theme equates to what is meant by the text or concept. I also believe theme is a different experience to the reader than to the writer. The reader's 'take away' from a work is an understanding of what the work meant, therefore theme for the reader is what s/he takes away from the experience. In All the Pretty Horses (Cormac McCarthy (novel)/Ted Tally (screenplay)) for example, blood is a key and central symbol, the themes extend from blood: that blood bonds people, that blood destroys people, that blood is both the beginning and end of life ... perhaps even that blood is life. There's a gap between the writer's experience and the reader's experience. One of the reasons readers engage is because the 'gap' offers something new: a new reading experience, a new way of looking at a subject, new knowledge about a subject, opportunity to explore something new or fresh ... and part of the writer's challenge is to bridge the gap, or at least provide some way for the reader to access the writer's experience by which the reader will be enriched in some way. By exploring on a theme, the writer is offering a device for connection. The theme may be something that has a common understanding, which means that reader and writer have a connection, but the writer who addresses the theme with a different approach, from a different point of view, with a hitherto unexplored play ... will provide a new level of understanding for the reader. I don't suggest that theme is loaded with 'lesson', as Debbie said above, we are not wanting to write polemical or rhetorical pieces, our business is the creation of entertainment. But entertainment comes from 'the new' and as such finding 'the new' is exciting for the reader. I have become convinced during the course of discussions on this subject that theme is more important for the writer than I would have previously conceded. Christopher Vogler, The Writers Journey says:

Knowing the theme is essential to making final choices in dialogue, action and set dressing that turn a story into a coherent design.

Meaning comes from 'the experience'; the experience occurs in the space between writer and reader where the connection is made. This is the proper place for theme to sit, because theme is the universal idea, or message, that is easily grasped in a wider context than the story, and indeed, can help connect it to a wider context than its own specific crucible. [Note: I use 'reader' in this discussion rather than audience. While a screenplay is written to guide the creation of a motion picture, its first port of call is still the reader, so the connection has to be made at the reader level before the audience.]