Intro to Drama

1. Intro to Drama “Beauty” by Jane Martin

2. Think, Pair, Share • We are going to think about these questions silently for a moment, pair with a partner, and share your ideas with each other before we discuss them as a class. • What can an audience expect when watching a play? Ideally, audiences experience this type of literature very differently than the short stories we have read so far. What makes the experience of watching drama unique?

3. Origins of Drama • The Western theater tradition traces is origins back to ancient Greece. • The earliest plays (dramas) were performed during religious festivals to Dionysius and featured stories from mythology and history. (7th Century BCE) • Many of the Greek plays that are still performed and studied today were written in the 5th century BCE. • By the time Aristotle wrote about Greek theater around 330 BCE, the genres of tragedy and comedy were firmly established, and the ancient Greeks were speculating about the history of drama much in the same way we wonder about the past now.

4. Ancient Greek Theater at Eretria One of the oldest existing theaters of its type, construction began in the 5th century BCE. Image Credit: Perseus Digital Library

5. Elements of Drama • When reading a play, you will encounter two distinct types of writing that the play needs in order to get its action across to an audience. • The dialogue consists of the lines the actors speak as they perform their parts. • The stage directions, which are written in third person present tense, tell what the actors should be doing. They also give directions about sets, lighting, and music. They are usually written in italics. Some authors write sparse, simple stage directions, and some writers provide extensive, often beautifully eloquent stage directions.

6. Elements of Drama, Continued • Drama, like fiction, has characters, setting, plot, etc., but there are some characteristics of drama that are unique because drama is meant to be performed live. • Sets (scenery, props, etc) may be elaborate or simple, and often reflect the theme of the play. • Playwright Anton Chekov once said, "If you put a gun over the mantle in the first act, then it must fire in the last." • Lighting and music are used to create mood and enhance theme.

7. Development of Sets/Scenery • Ancient Greek theaters had a building called a skene that could be decorated to represent a temple, a house, or some other structure relevant to the plot of the drama. • Some Greek theaters also had trap doors that would allow characters to enter or exit suddenly, and some had cranes that would allow characters representing deities to descend onto the stage.

8. Development of Sets/Scenery • Plays in Shakespeare’s day also included scenery that was more or less elaborate depending on the audience and the wealth of the acting company. • However, no matter how elaborate the scenery, the burden of conveying where and when the action takes place still fell on the actors. • Directors of modern plays sometimes choose not to have elaborate sets on stage in order to keep the focus on characters’ actions and words.

9. In Class Reading of Beauty on p. 762 • At the bottom of p. 765, the two women switch bodies. So, for my two “actresses,” when the switch occurs… • The first name is the one you should be looking at to figure out who speaks based on your original roles that you chose. • The second is the character you're now playing. • Carla/Bethany = Bethany in Carla’s body (so Carla's actress still speaks, but she is now playing Bethany) • Bethany/Carla = Carla in Bethany’s body (so Bethany’s actress still speaks, but she is now playing Carla)

10. Questions for Beauty • This seems on the surface to be a case of “The grass is always greener on the other side.” Is there anything else going on here? What other issues does this play bring up? How does the play address those issues? • If we were able to watch the video, how did the director and the actresses use lighting, music, props, costumes, and stage directions? • Why is the switch supernatural? Why don't they just talk about their differences? • Which woman do you think is going to be happier with the switch? Support your opinion.