DRAMA

1. DRAMA

2. HISTORY OF WESTERN DRAMA

3. DRAMA • Fiction in performance • A prose or verse composition intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing the dialogue and action • the general term for performances in which actors impersonate the actions and speech of fictional or historical characters for the entertainment of an audience, either on a stage or by means of a broadcast • a particular example of this art, i.e. a play

4. Aristotle's Drama Elements • PLOT – what happens in a play; the order of events, the story as opposed to the theme; what happens rather than what it means. • THEME – what the play means as opposed to what happens (plot); the main idea within the play. • CHARACTER – the personality or the part an actor represents in a play; a role played by an actor in a play.

5. Aristotle's Drama Elements • DICTION/LANGUAGE/DIALOGUE – the word choices made by the playwright and the enunciation of the actors delivering the lines. • MUSIC/RHYTHM – by music Aristotle meant the sound, rhythm and melody of the speeches. • SPECTACLE – the visual elements of the production of a play; the scenery, costumes, and special effects in a production.

6. Greek Drama • Three types of drama were composed in Athens • Satyr • Was not taken seriously until greek Enlightenment • Tragedy • A drama which concerns better than average people (heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an elevated language • a fiction which is neither true nor believable • Purging of the soul (catharsis) • Character flaw

7. Greek Drama • Three types of drama were composed in Athens • Satyr • Was not taken seriously until greek Enlightenment • Tragedy • A drama which concerns better than average people (heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an elevated language • a fiction which is neither true nor believable • Purging of the soul (catharsis) • Character flaw

8. Elizabethan Theater • Part of the English Renaissance Theater • Plays perfomed in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1558-1603) • Jacobean theater – King James I (1603 - 1625) • Caroline theater – King Charkes I (1625-1642)

9. Elizabethan Theater • Three venues • Inn yards • The early days of Elizabethan commercial theater Performances held in private London Inns. • Inexpensive. • Held indoors or the yard. • Audience capacity up to 500 • Open air amphitheaters • Think of a public outdoor structure like the Coliseum or a small football stadium with a capacity of between 1500 and 3000 people

10. Elizabethan Theater • Three venues • Indoor playhouses • A small, private indoor hall. • Open to anyone who would pay but more expensive with more select audiences. • Audience capacity up to 500

11. Elizabethan Theater • William Shakespeare • Christopher Marlowe (could have been much better than Shakespeare: died young) • Theatre had an unsavory reputation. London authorities refused to allow plays within the city, so theatres outside the authority of the city administration

12. Elizabethan Theater • The first proper theatre as we know it was the Theatre, built at Shoreditch in 1576. Before this time plays were performed in the courtyard of inns, or sometimes, in the houses of noblemen. • After the Theatre, further open air playhouses opened in the London area, including the Rose (1587), and the Hope (1613). The most famous playhouse was the Globe (1599) built by the company in which Shakespeare had a stake

13. Elizabethan Theater • The Globe was only in use until 1613, when a canon fired during a performance of Henry VIII caught the roof on fire and the building burned to the ground. • Theatre performances were held in the afternoon, because, of course, there was no artificial lighting. Women attended plays, though often the prosperous woman would wear a mask to disguise her identity. Further, no women performed in the plays. Female roles were generally performed by young boys.

14. Modern Drama • Great influences • 19th-century Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen • the 20th-century German theater practitioner Bertolt Brecht • each inspired a tradition of imitators, which include many of the greatest playwrights of the modern era • Different techniques but with the same effect

15. Modern Drama • both modernist and realist and incorporates formal experimentation, meta-theatricality, and social critique • In terms of the traditional theoretical discourse of genre • Ibsen's work has been described as the culmination of "liberal tragedy" • Brecht's has been aligned with an historicised comedy

16. Modern Drama Other important playwrights of the modern era include • August StrindbergAnton Chekhov, Frank Wedekind, Maurice Maeterlinck, Federico García Lorca, Eugene O'Neill, Luigi Pirandello, George Bernard Shaw, Ernst Toller, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Eugène Ionesco, Samuel Beckett, Harold Pinter, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Dario Fo, Heiner Müller, and Caryl Churchill

17. FORMS

18. DIFFERENT FORMS • Opera • arose during the Renaissance • attempt to revive the classical Greek drama tradition in which both music and theater were combined • Undergone a lot of changes and has become an important part of theater nowadays

19. DIFFERENT FORMS • Pantomime • follow in the tradition of fables and folk tales, usually there is a lesson learned, and with some help from the audience the hero/heroine saves the day. • uses stock characters seen in masque and again commedia dell'arte (comedy of the art of improvisation), these characters include the villain (doctore), the clown/servant (Arlechino/Harlequin/buttons), the lovers etc. • has an emphasis on moral dilemmas, and good always triumphs over evil • very entertaining making it a very effective way of reaching many people

20. DIFFERENT FORMS • Creative Drama • dramatic activities and games used primarily in educational settings with children. • started in the United States in the early 1900s • Winifred Ward is considered to be the founder of creative drama in education, establishing the first academic use of drama in Evanston, Illinois.

21. Types of Drama or Plays

22. Types • 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

23. Types • 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.

24. Types • 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.

25. Types (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.

26. Tragedy • Origins • "tragos" + "oide" -- goat song usually involves a calamity (death, etc.), but attention is focused on what reactions are to that calamity by the characters and what those reactions can tell us about life. • The "dithyramb" -- hymns sung and danced in honor of Dionysus. • Usually about the struggles of the "protagonist", moral issues, the effects of suffering

27. Tragedy • Origins • Struggle is ethical, spiritual -- protagonist's integrity is tested. • Tragedy raises questions about the meaning of human existence, moral nature, and social / psychological relationships. • Aristotle suggested a "certain magnitude." • Evil often shown along with good, which does not always win. • Some tragedies (Greek) like Oedipus, suggest that the protagonist has violated some moral order which must be vindicated and reestablished. • Often seems inevitable and predetermined (we can look and decide for ourselves later).

28. Tragedy • Associated Terms • Magnitude: characters have high stature -- ethically superior but sufficiently imperfect • High seriousness: Tries to arouse (effect) proper purgation of pity and fear -- [some have asked if the purgation is to be in the audience or in the characters??] • "Catharsis" -- a purification -- the compassion accompanying shared grief -- a humanizing force--we return to a state of equilibrium after release of tensions -- Contradictory reactions -- pessimistic, yet not willing to surrender individuality -- a form of victory.

29. Tragedy • Associated Terms • The Tragic Hero (protagonist) has a flaw in character or makes an error in judgment -- "tragic flaw" -- hamartia-- literally "missing the mark.". • "hubris" -- a characteristic -- overweening pride or self-confidence. • Aristotle suggests that the best plays (Oedipus) have the hubris being too much of a good thing (what makes Oedipus strong is his self-confidence and pride) • Universality -- Universal human values -- When a play touches something that is human in all of us and has lasting value through time

30. Comedy • Kinds of Comedy • Farce - “low comedy” • Burlesques - lampooning other works of art, including theater pieces • Satire • Domestic comedy • Comedy of manners • Comedy of ideas • Comedy of situation • Comedy of character • Romantic comedy struggles of love, sympathetic characters, ludicrous devices lovers use (Shakespeare's Midsummer, 12th Night)

31. Comedy • High and Low • High Comedy • highly complex, embracing a wide range of approaches--from intellectual wit to slapstick • Satire -- biting humor -- criticism of life • Incongruity -- surprise, out of place • Verbal Wit • Low Comedy • comedy that depends on action and situation, usually involving trivial theme in all farce • inopportune arrivals • embarrassing occurrences

32. Mixed Forms • Heroic Drama • Melodrama • Domestic / Bourgeois Drama • Tragi-Comedy