Drama
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Transcript of Drama
What Is Drama?Structure of a DramaKinds of Plays
TragedyComedyModern Drama
Performance of a PlayThe StageThe Characters
ReviewPractice
Drama
Feature Menu
A play is a story acted out, live and onstage.
What Is Drama?
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Like the plot of a story, the plot of a drama follows a rising-and-falling structure.
Climaxtension at highest point
Resolutionconflict is settled, play ends
Complicationstension builds
Expositionconflict is introduced
Structure of a Drama
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A play may be a tragedy, a comedy, or, in modern drama, a mixture of the two.• A tragedy depicts serious and
important events that end unhappily.
• A comedy ends happily. Although most comedies are funny, they may also make us think and question.
Kinds of Plays
Which plot would be a tragedy, and which would be a comedy?
Kinds of PlaysQuick Check1. A young woman wants to marry
her love, but her mother disapproves of him. After many setbacks, the suitor wins the mother’s approval and the lovers marry.
2. A young man, blinded by passion, worsens a feud between his family and his lover’s. The play ends with the deaths of the two lovers.
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Most classical tragedies deal with serious subjects—fate, life, and death—and center on a tragic hero. Tragic heroes
Innocent heroes
ambition
excessive pride
rebelliousness
passion
• are usually noble figures
• have a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to their downfall
Tragedy
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In a comedy, the characters usually face humorous obstacles and problems that are resolved by the end of the play. Comic heroes• may be ordinary people instead
of nobility• eventually overcome their flaws
and achieve happiness
Comedy
The conflict in comedies is usually romantic.• Someone wants to marry but
faces an obstacle—opposing parents or rival suitors.
Comedy
[End of Section]
• Complications can involve misunderstandings, mistaken identities, disguises, or transformation.
• The obstacle is always overcome.
Many of today’s dramas can’t be neatly defined as either comedy and tragedy. Modern plays• often mix the serious
with the humorous• focus on characters
that audiences will identify with rather than look up to
Modern Drama
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Plays are meant to be performed. A play comes to life in each unique performance.Stage DirectionsPlaywright describes setting and actions
InterpretationActors, directors, and designers interpret these directions creatively
PerformanceAudience experiences the story through the actors’ speech and actions
Performance of a Play
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A stage is like a small world unto itself. A stage• can be grand or
intimate• has its own
coordinates
upstage
downstage
stage leftstage right
The Stage
The stage’s set might be
A set can be changed from scene to scene—sometimes with machinery and sometimes with just a change in lighting.
realistic and detailed
The Stage
abstract or minimal
Other important elements of set design are costumes and props.• Costumes tell us about the
characters and the time and place. They can be elaborate or minimal.
• Props are items that the characters carry or handle onstage.
The Stage
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• deciding how to interpret and speak the lines of the play
The actors and director bring characters to life by
• building on the playwright’s stage directions for actions and movements
The Characters
[Mary takes off her jacket and faces the audience.]
Mary: Can I make it on my own?
Characters’ speech takes the form of• Dialogue—conversation
between characters• Monologue—a long speech by
one character to one or more other characters
• Soliloquy—a speech by a character alone onstage, speaking to himself or herself or to the audience
Asides
The Characters
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What are the stage directions in this passage?
Is this more likely to be a comedy or a tragedy? Why?
Review
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Quick Check[Gwendolen and Cecily are at the window, looking out into the garden.]Gwendolen. The fact that they did not follow us at once into the house . . . seems to me to show that they have some sense of shame left.Cecily. They have been eating muffins. That looks like repentance.Gwendolen. [After a pause.] They don’t seem to notice us at all. Couldn’t you cough?from The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Choose a play or movie you remember seeing, and discuss its dramatic elements. Start by describing the set (or sets). Then, describe the actors’ costumes. Next, evaluate the characters’ dialogue—was it convincing? clever? silly? Finally, write a few stage directions, based on what you imagine them to have been.
Practice
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The End