DRAMA
Drama is a literary composition involving conflict,
action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a stage before
an audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as well as
to the traditional stage.
Types of Drama:
- Tragedy -- In general, tragedy
involves the ruin of the leading characters. To the Greeks, it meant the
destruction of some noble person through fate, To the Elizabethans, it
meant in the first place death and in the second place the destruction of
some noble person through a flaw in his character. Today it may not
involve death so much as a dismal life, Modern tragedy often shows the
tragedy not of the strong and noble but of the weak and mean,
- Comedy -- is lighter drama in which
the leading characters overcome the difficulties which temporarily beset
them
- Problem
Play -- Drama
of social criticism discusses social, economic, or political problems by
means of a play.
- Farce -- When comedy involves
ridiculous or hilarious complications without regard for human values, it
becomes farce.
- Comedy of
Manners -- Comedy
which wittily portrays fashionable life.
- Fantasy -- A play sometimes, but not
always, in comic spirit in which the author gives free reign to his
fantasy, allowing things to happen without regard to reality.
- Melodrama -- Like farce, melodrama pays
almost no attention to human values, but its object is to give a thrill
instead of a laugh. Often good entertainment, never any literary value.
Types of Drama of Historical Interest:
- Medieval
mystery plays -- dealt
with Bible stories and allegorical mysteries.
- Chronicle
plays -- dealt
directly with historical scenes and characters.
- Masques -- were slight plays involving
much singing and dancing and costuming. They were usually allegorical.
Drama is the most dependent of art forms --
director, actors, scene and costume designers must interpret before the
audience does.
The Place of the Actor
- The player
should respect his play, his part, his fellow players, and his audience.
- He should
have imagination enough to create character for us instead of merely
exploiting his own personality.
- He should
have a technical equipment in his 'voice, facial expression, bodily poise,
gesture, and by-play that enables him to project the character as he
conceives it
(Drama
1. Allusion - an indirect reference by
casually mentioning something that is generally familiar (In literature we find
many allusions to mythology, the Bible, history, etc.)
2. Aside - Lines whispered to the
audience or to another character on stage (not meant to be heard by all the
characters on stage)
3. Catastrophe - the final event in a
drama (a death in a tragedy or a marriage in a comedy)
4. Comedy - A light play with a happy
ending
5. Comic Relief - A bit of humor
injected into a serious play to relieve the heavy tension of tragic events
6. Crisis or Climax - the turning point
in the plot (This occurs when events develop either for or against the main
character and a crucial decision must be made.)
7. Dramatic Irony - occurs when the
audience knows something that the character on stage is not aware.
8. Foreshadow - Lines that give a hint
or clue to future events (It doesn't tell the future but hints at it.)
9. Irony -
- A method
of expression in which the ordinary meaning of the word is opposite to the
thought in the speaker's mind
- Events
contrary to what would be naturally expected
10. Metaphor - an implied comparison
between two different things; identifying a person or object as the thing to
which it is being compared.
Example: 'It is the East and Juliet is the sun.' - 'tossed on the sea of life'
Example: 'It is the East and Juliet is the sun.' - 'tossed on the sea of life'
11. Metonymy - a figure of speech
whereby the name of a thing is substituted for the attribute which it suggests.
Example: The pen (power of literature or the written word) is mightier than the
sword (force).
12. Nemesis - agent of retribution (the
person who punishes)
13. Personification - giving the quality
of life to inanimate things
14. Poetic Justice - The operation of
justice in a play with fair distribution of rewards for good deeds and
punishment for wrong doing
15. Simile - an expressed comparison
between two different things using 'like' or 'as' - Example: 'eyes twinkle like
stars' - 'as loud as the roaring sea'
16. Soliloquy - A single character on
stage thinking out loud (a way of letting the audience know what is in the
character's mind)
17. Tragedy - A serious play having an
unhappy ending
18. Tragic Flaw - A character trait that
leads one to his/her own downfall or destruction .
The
basic steps involved in the development of drama include:
1. Coming up with
Thought/Theme/Ideas to be expressed through the work.
2. Determine the Genre
and Style of the work
3. Outlining Basic Action
of the work and Creating Plot.
4. Establish the
Structure of the Play and Overall Framework
5. The Development of
Characters presented in the work.
6. The Creation of
Dialogue and the Language of the Characters.
7. Creating Music: This
can involve the Rhythm of the Language or actual Music Composition and the
Lyrics of the songs.
8. Establishing
Spectacle: The visual and Environmental elements of the work.
9. Research of Subject
Matter and Relevant issues presented in the play.
Elements of Drama
Most successful playwrights follow the theories
of playwriting and drama that were established over two thousand years ago by a
man named Aristotle. In his works the Poetics Aristotle
outlined the six elements of drama in his critical analysis of the classical
Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex written by the Greek playwright,
Sophocles, in the fifth century B.C. The six elements as they are
outlined involve: Thought, Theme, Ideas; Action or Plot; Characters; Language;
Music; and Spectacle.
1. Thought/Theme/Ideas
What the play means as opposed to
what happens (the plot). Sometimes the theme is clearly stated in the
title. It may be stated through dialogue by a character acting as the
playwright’s voice. Or it may be the theme is less obvious and emerges only
after some study or thought. The abstract issues and feelings that grow out of
the dramatic action.
2. Action/Plot
The events of a play; the story as
opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means. The plot must
have some sort of unity and clarity by setting up a pattern by which each
action initiating the next rather than standing alone without connection to
what came before it or what follows. In the plot of a play, characters
are involved in conflict that has a pattern of movement. The action and
movement in the play begins from the initial entanglement, through rising
action, climax, and falling action to resolution.
3. Characters
These are the people presented in
the play that are involved in the perusing plot. Each character should
have their own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio economic
background, and language.
4. Language
The word choices made by the
playwright and the enunciation of the actors of the language. Language
and dialog delivered by the characters moves the plot and action along,
provides exposition, defines the distinct characters. Each playwright can
create their own specific style in relationship to language choices they use in
establishing character and dialogue.
5. Music
Music can encompass the rhythm of
dialogue and speeches in a play or can also mean the aspects of the melody and
music compositions as with musical theatre. Each theatrical presentation
delivers music, rhythm and melody in its own distinctive manner.
Music is not a part of every play. But, music can be included to mean all
sounds in a production. Music can expand to all sound effects, the
actor’s voices, songs, and instrumental music played as underscore in a
play. Music creates patterns and establishes tempo in theatre. In
the aspects of the musical the songs are used to push the plot forward and move
the story to a higher level of intensity. Composers and lyricist work
together with playwrights to strengthen the themes and ideas of the play.
Character’s wants and desires can be strengthened for the audience through
lyrics and music.
6. Spectacle
Genre/Form
Drama
is divided into the categories of tragedy, comedy, melodrama, and
tragicomedy. Each of these genre/forms can be further subdivide by style
and content.
Tragedy
Tragedy is an imitation of an action
that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude. The tragedy is
presented in the form of action, not narrative. It will arouse pity and fear in
the audience as it witnesses the action. It allows for an arousal of this
pity and fear and creates an affect of purgation or catharsis of these strong
emotions by the audience. Tragedy is serious by nature in its theme and
deals with profound problems. These profound problems are universal when
applied to the human experience. In classical tragedy we find a
protagonist at the center of the drama that is a great person, usually of upper
class birth. He is a good man that can be admired, but he has a tragic
flaw, a hamartia, that will be the ultimate cause of his down fall. This
tragic flaw can take on many characteristics but it is most often too much
pride or hubris. The protagonist always learns, usually too late, the
nature of his flaw and his mistakes that have caused his downfall. He
becomes self-aware and accepts the inevitability of his fate and takes full
responsibility for his actions. We must have this element of
inevitability in tragedy. There must be a cause and effect relationship
from the beginning through the middle to the end or final catastrophe. It
must be logical in the conclusion of the necessary outcome. Tragedy will
involve the audience in the action and create tension and expectation.
With the climax and final end the audience will have learned a lesson and will
leave the theatre not depressed or sullen, but uplifted and enlightened.
Comedy
Comedy should have the view of a
“comic spirit” and is physical and energetic. It is tied up in rebirth
and renewal, this is the reason most comedy end in weddings, which suggest a
union of a couple and the expected birth of children. In comedy there is
absence of pain and emotional reactions, as with tragedy, and a replaced use of
mans intellect. The behavior of the characters presented in comedy is
ludicrous and sometimes absurd and the result in the audience is one of
correction of behaviors. This correction of behaviors is the didactic
element of comedy that acts as a mirror for society , by which the audience
learns “don’t behave in ludicrous and absurd ways.” The types of comedies
can vary greatly; there are situation comedies, romantic comedies, sentimental
comedies, dark comedies, comedy of manners, and pure farce. The comic
devices used by playwrights of comedy are: exaggeration, incongruity, surprise,
repetition, wisecracks, and sarcasm.
Melodrama
Melodrama is drama of disaster and
differs from tragedy significantly, in that; forces outside of the protagonist
cause all of the significant events of the plot. All of the aspects of
related guilt or responsibility of the protagonist are removed. The
protagonist is usually a victim of circumstance. He is acted upon by the
antagonist or anti-hero and suffers without having to accept responsibility and
inevitability of fate. In melodrama we have clearly defined character types
with good guys and bad guys identified. Melodrama has a sense of strict
moral judgment. All issues presented in the plays are resolved in a
well-defined way. The good characters are rewarded and the bad characters
are punished in a means that fits the crime.
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is the most life like of all of the
genres. It is non-judgmental and ends with no absolutes. It focuses
on character relationships and shows society in a state of continuous
flux. There is a mix of comedy and tragedy side by side in these types of
plays.
Style/Mode/ “ism’
The shaping of dramatic material,
setting, or costumes in a specific manner. Each play will have its own unique
and distinctive behaviors, dress, and language of the characters. The
style of a playwright is shown in the choices made in the world of the play:
the kinds of characters, time periods, settings, language, methods of
characterization, use of symbols, and themes.
Dramatic Structure
Dramatic structure involves the overall framework or method by which the
playwright uses to organize the dramatic material and or action. It is
important for playwrights to establish themes but the challenge comes in
applying structure to the ideas and inspirations. Understanding basic
principals of dramatic structure can be invaluable to the playwright.
Most modern plays are structured into acts that can be further divided into
scenes. The pattern most often used is a method by where the playwright
sets up early on in the beginning scenes all of the necessary conditions and
situations out of which the later conditions will develop. Generally the wants
and desires of one character will conflict with another character. With
this method the playwright establishes a pattern of complication, rising
action, climax, and resolution. This is commonly known as cause to effect
arrangement of incidents.
The basic
Characteristics of the cause to effect arrangement are:
- Clear exposition of situation
- Careful preparation for future events
- Unexpected but logical reversals
- Continuous mounting suspense
- An obligatory scene
- Logical resolution
Point of Attack
The moment of the play at which the
main action of the plot begins. This may occur in the first scene, or it
may occur after several scenes of exposition. The point of attack is the
main action by which all others will arise. It is the point at which the
main complication is introduced. Point of attack can sometimes work hand
in hand with a play’s inciting incident, which is the first incident leading to
the rising action of the play. Sometimes the inciting incident is an
event that occurred somewhere in the character’s past and is revealed to the
audience through exposition.
Exposition
Exposition is important information
that the audience needs to know in order to follow the main story line of the
play. It is the aspects of the story that the audience may hear about but
that they will not witness in actual scenes. It encompasses the past actions
of the characters before the play’s opening scenes progress.
Rising Action
Rising action is the section of the
plot beginning with the point of attack and/or inciting incident and proceeding
forward to the crisis onto the climax. The action of the play will rise
as it set up a situation of increasing intensity and anticipation. These
scenes make up the body of the play and usually create a sense of continuous
mounting suspense in the audience.
The Climax/Crisis
All of the earlier scenes and
actions in a play will build technically to the highest level of dramatic
intensity. This section of the play is generally referred to as the moment of
the plays climax. This is the moment where the major dramatic questions rise
to the highest level, the mystery hits the unraveling point, and the culprits
are revealed. This should be the point of the highest stage of dramatic
intensity in the action of the play. The whole combined actions of the
play generally lead up to this moment.
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