Introduction to Drama

1. Introduction to Drama

2. What is drama? The word drama comes from the Greek word for “action.” Drama is written to be performed by actors and watched by an audience.

3. Definition • Unlike short stories or novels, plays are written for the express purpose of performance.

4. Definition • Actors play roles and present the storyline through dialogue, action, and gestures.

5. Two Basic “Flavors” • Tragedy shows the downfall or death of a tragic hero, or main character. In ancient Greek plays, the hero was a good person brought down by a tragic flaw, or defect in character. In a modern plays, the hero can be an normal person destroyed by an evil in society. • emphasizes human greatness. • Comedy Comedies are dramatic works which use humor to explore various themes and characters. Comedies usually end on a happy note. Stresses human weaknesses.

6. Important Terms • Monologue – an extended speech by one character. • Soliloquy – an extended speech by one character, alone on stage. Soliloquies are used to express the private thoughts of one character. • Aside – a character’s direct address to the audience, which is not heard by the other characters.

7. Monologues, soliloquies, and asides are dramatic techniques that provide direct insight into motives, attitudes, and overall tone. • These techniques function like a fictional narrator.

8. More Terms • Dramatic Irony • Playwrights use dramatic irony when they allow the audience to know more than the characters do about a specific situation or incident. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the audience hears the fiendish plot of Claudius and Laërtes. Both are determined to see Hamlet dead. Moments later, Hamlet responds to news of the King’s great wager and his own impending duel with Laërtes by saying, “[…] how ill all’s here about my heart” (V.ii. 186).

9. Key Terms • Satire • The term satire refers to social criticism that is cloaked in comedy and used to ridicule social institutions and figureheads. • Farce • The term farce refers to comedy that lapses into ludicrous, improbable plots, mockery, and even slapstick.

10. Plot • The overall storyline and sequence of events is known as the plot.

11. Elements of Plot • Exposition – introduces the characters, setting and basic situation. • Rising action – presents the central conflict, complications, suspense and crisis. • Climax – the point of greatest tension.

12. Elements of Plot • Falling action – subsiding intensity. • Denouement – the resolution which ties up loose ends and concludes the action.

13. Reading Drama • Pay particular attention to the overall plot. • What are the major conflicts or issues? • When does the climax occur? • What force or forces seem to be at work in the play, moving the action along?

14. Characters • Pay close attention to characters. • Who are the central characters? • What do you know about their personalities? How do you know this information? • What are the characters’ strengths and weaknesses? Photo credit: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. Cornell Schwatz Center for the Performing Arts.

15. Stage directions • Stage directions are notes in the script usually written in italics and enclosed in parentheses or brackets. They usually describe where and when a scene takes place (setting), how the characters should say their lines, and how the characters should move onstage. They may explain the character’s mood or how the character is feeling. • Stage directions may also describe sets, costumes, props, lighting, and sound effects.

16. Audience

17. How is a play divided? • A play is largely divided up into parts, or acts. The number of acts in a production can range from one to five, depending on how a writer structures the outline of the story. The length of time for an act to be performed can range from 30 to 90 minutes. • Acts may be further divided into scenes; in classical theatre each regrouping between entrances and exits of actors is a scene, while today it describes a quick change of setting.