Dr. Vijayeswari Subba NaiduJazan University

DRAMA

Why do we teach Drama to ESL Students

1. Drama is a unique tool, that simulates reality and develops self-expression.

2. Drama techniques make students experience language in operation and provide motivation to use language embedded in a context and a situation.

3. Drama techniques break the monotony of a conventional English.

4. It prepares students to face their immediate world better

5. There are opportunities to become competent users of the English language because they can use the language in operation

Etymology & Definition

• Drama began in ancient Greece. The word "drama" has its roots in Greek words ‘dran’ meaning "to act" and "to do."

• A play is a collaborative process, and the study of drama involves the study of acting, directing, writing, music and art. History, psychology, and even religion also have a part in understanding drama.

• Drama is a story told in front of an audience

Student’s Responsibilities• Connect personal experiences to events in the drama

by using questioning techniques.• Visualize the characters as you read stage directions.• Evaluate characters' words and actions and

determine what motivates them.• Notice character change and growth.• Compare characters by making chart. • Analyze monologues and soliloquies.• Read the play aloud.• Identify the setting and evaluate how it affects the

play's mood.• Identify major and minor conflicts.

Elements of Drama• Playwright-the author of a play• Actors-the people who perform• Acts-the units of action • Scenes-parts of the acts

Dramatic Speech

• Dialogue-conversation between or among characters

• Monologue-long speech by one single character (private thoughts)

Conflict

• The internal or external struggle between opposing forces, ideas, or interests that create dramatic tension.

Stage Directions

• Found in brackets [ ]• Describe scenery and how

characters speak• C, Center Stage• L, Stage Left• R, Stage Right• U, Upstage or Rear • D, Downstage or Front

Theatre

• Where a play takes place or enacted

Set• Construction on the stage that shows time/place• Could be called Scenery

Props

• Small movable items that the actors use to make actions look real

Characterization

• Is the playwright’s technique for creating believable characters.

1) Indirect

2) Direct

Types of Drama

A tragedy is a play that ends unhappily.

• Tragedies pit human limitations against the larger forces of destiny.

right and wrong

justice and injustice

life and death

Tragedy

• Most classic Greek tragedies deal with serious, universal themes such as

The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a tragic hero. This hero

• is noble and in many ways admirable

• has a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to a tragic end

rebelliousness

jealousy

pride

Tragedy

A comedy is a play that ends happily. The plot usually centers on a romantic conflict.

boy meets girl boy loses girl boy wins girl

Comedy

The main characters in a comedy could be anyone:

nobility servantstownspeople

Comedy

• Comic complications always occur before the conflict is resolved.

• In most cases, the play ends with a wedding.

Comedy- conflicts

Modern Comedy

• Modern Comedies– In modern comedies, the genders in this romantic

plot pattern sometimes are reversed.

A modern play

• usually is about ordinary people

• may be tragedy, comedy, or a mixture of the two

• usually focuses on personal issues

Modern Drama

Modern playwrights often experiment with unconventional plot structures.

Modern Drama

long flashbacksmusic

visual projections of a character’s private

thoughts

Comparison of Medieval and modern

Drama in Middle ages Modern Drama

Plays were primarily religious in content.

Passion plays, mystery plays, miracle plays and morality plays depicted stories and themes from Christianity.

Clergymen wrote plays with the intention to give religious instruction.

Humor crept into plays over time.

Modern drama has a

diversity of themes and

explores genres, cultures,

experiences and issues.

Themes

Acting Styles

Religious plays of medieval times had informative, realistic and melodramatic acting styles.

Characters were stereotypically depicted in an informative storytelling fashion.

Today, drama is realistic in style but also symbolic, ritualistic and even abstract.

Experimentation with style and presentation is standard in modern drama.

Actors

Actors in the Middle Ages were primarily male. Actors were poor and considered at the bottom end of society

Today, actresses fill countless roles and are some of the richest and most idolized members of society.

Switching up gender and gender roles is part of the experimental process of modern theatre

Settings

Medieval plays were originally mounted in churches. As the plays' set designs expanded, the performers took their drama to the streets. Acting troops formed and toured their plays in wagons. The influence of street performers, like travelling musicians was there.

Today, some travelling acting troops still exist, but most performances are either housed in theatres or captured on film and available on the television and Internet.

Entertainment Value

In Medieval plays passion, mystery, miracle and morality could hardly entertain, because they began as vehicles to teach religion rather than amuse the masses. But as spectacle, humor and sensationalism became part of these religious plays, audiences responded with awe, laughter and approval

Today, drama has more subtle, intellectual and intricate forms. Technology still provides sensationalism, but sophistication has become part of dramatic entertainment.

How to read ?..- Instruction for students

When you read a play, remember that it is meant to be performed for an audience.

Stage Directions

Playwright describes setting and characters’ actions and manner.

[Wyona is sitting on the couch. She sees Paul and jumps to her feet.]Wyona. [Angrily.] What do you want?

Performance of a Play

Performance

Theater artists bring the playwright’s vision to life on the stage.

The audience responds to the play and shares the experience.

Performance of a Play

Theater artists include Actors

Directors

Lighting technicians

Stage crew

Stages can have many different sizes and layouts.

“Thrust” stage

Setting the Stage

• The stage extends into the viewing area.• The audience surrounds the stage on three sides.

“In the round” stage is surrounded by an audience on all sides.

Setting the Stage

Proscenium stage

Setting the Stage

• The playing area extends behind an opening called a “proscenium arch.”

• The audience sits on one side looking into the action.

upstage

downstage

stage leftstage right

Setting the Stage

Stages in Shakespeare’s time were thrust stages.

Scene design transforms a bare stage into the world of the play. Scene design consists of

• props

• sets

• costumes

• lighting

Scene design

A stage’s set might be

realistic and detailed

Set

abstract and minimal

A lighting director skillfully uses light to change the mood and appearance of the set.

Light

The costume director works with the director to design the actors’ costumes.

• Like sets, costumes can be

detailed minimal

Costume

Props (short for properties) are items that the characters carry or handle onstage.

• The person in charge of props must make sure that the right props are available to the actors at the right moments.

props

The characters’ speech may take any of the following forms.

Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage

Monologue: long speech given by one character to others

Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or to the audience

Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character; the other characters onstage do not hear an aside

The Characters

Finally, a play needs an audience to

experience the performance

understand the story

respond to the characters

The Audience

Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves characters who face a problem or conflict.

Climaxpoint of highest tension;

action determines how the conflict will be resolved

Resolutionconflict is resolved;play ends

Complicationstension builds

Expositioncharacters and conflict are introduced

Dramatic Structure

Dramatic Structure Conflict is a struggle or clash

between opposing characters or forces. A conflict may develop . . .

between characters who want different things or the same thing

between a character and his or her circumstances

within a character who is torn by competing desires

Learning Techniques• Comparison : What are the differences between the

plays • Induction: Based on the characters change and growth

and conflict and denouement what can we conclude?• Deduction: Based on the rules of the tragedy and

comedy what could be the conclusion? What must happen for the conspirators plot to work?

• Classification –What qualities do the characters share?– In what ways deviate?

Learning techniques - contd• Error Analysis – What errors in THE judgment and final action and in the

characters who fall into problem ?• Abstraction – What pattern does the characters exhibit?– Is there anyone else we've read about that demonstrates

the same pattern?– How can you avoid demonstrating this pattern in your life?

• Analyzing Perspectives – Why the hero or heroine and the villain behave in a

particular way?– How will you relate it to the writer’s period and to your

period?

Courtesy

• http://www.brighthubeducation.com/high-school-english-lessons/22731-teaching-questioning-techniques/

• http://www.ehow.com/how_4823732_read-drama-lesson-plan-part.html

• http://www.slideshare.net/cesvaldez13/7-elements-of-modern-drama