I'm currently judging a script competition for Shriekfest 2009. Of the six scripts I have read so far only one had a hold on the all important skill of making each and every one of your characters stand out.
The next time you are polishing your dialogue try this: cover the names of each of your characters, preferably with white out, and read the exchanges aloud. If they sound alike then change the speech patterns, outlook, tone, end of sentence mannerism, dialect, slang, whatever- until the lines look as well as sound different.
You want your script to have such clarity that readers can skip slug lines and character names and still pick up on what is going on. When reviewing my own material I always try to read it without ever looking at the name of the character who is currently speaking.
Besides, I should know my characters so well that I recognize them by their voice.
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