Drama

What is Drama?• It is NOT what happens between you and your girlfriends.

• Drama has one characteristic peculiar to itself - it is written primarily to be performed, not read. It is a presentation of action – a. through actors (the impact is direct and immediate), – b. on a stage (a captive audience), and – c. before an audience (suggesting a communal experience).

• Of the four major points of view, the dramatist is limited to only one - the objective or dramatic. • The playwright cannot directly comment on the action or the character

and cannot directly enter the minds of characters and tell us what is going on there. But there are ways to get around this limitation through the use of – 1. soliloquy (a character speaking directly to the audience), – 2. chorus ( a group on stage commenting on characters and actions), and – 3. one character commenting on another (Reuben, n. pag.).

Types of Drama• 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

• 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. • 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 (Drama, n. pag.).

Tragedy• Aristotle's definition of tragedy: A tragedy is the

imitation in dramatic form of an action that is serious and complete, with incidents arousing pity and fear wherewith it effects a catharsis (release or cleansing) of such emotions.

• The language used is pleasurable and throughout appropriate to the situation in which it is used.

• The chief characters are noble personages ("better than ourselves," says Aristotle) and the actions they perform are noble actions (Reuben, n. pag.).

Acts and Scenes

• Acts are large chunks of play that have multiple scenes.

• Scenes breaks are usually dictated by production, such as a change of location, time elapses, etc.

Characters

• Characters should be listed and a brief description given of each character:

EXAMPLE:

DANIEL WORKMAN: late forties, missing his right leg below the knee.NATASCHA WORKMAN: Daniel's daughter. 14, also missing her right leg below the knee.MRS. BERRY: Daniel's housekeeper. Late fifties. Has a large tattoo of a rainbow across her forehead.MR. BERRY: The butcher, married to MRS. BERRY. Early sixties. Bald.

Tragic Hero• 1. The tragic hero is a character of noble stature and has greatness. If the

hero's fall is to arouse in us the emotions of pity and fear, it must be a fall from a great height.

• 2. Though the tragic hero is pre-eminently great, he/she is not perfect. Tragic flaw, hubris (excessive pride or passion), and hamartia (some error) lead to the hero's downfall.

• 3. The hero's downfall, therefore, is partially her/his own fault, the result of one's own free choice, not the result of pure accident or villainy, or some overriding malignant fate.

• 4. Nevertheless, the hero's misfortune is not wholly deserved. The punishment exceeds the crime. The hero remains admirable.

• 5. Yet the tragic fall is not pure loss - though it may result in the hero's death, before it, there is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge or, as Aristotle puts it, some "discovery."

• 6. Though it arouses solemn emotion - pity and fear, says Aristotle, but compassion and awe might be better terms - tragedy, when well performed, does not leave its audience in a state of depression. It produces a catharsis or an emotional release at the end, one shared as a common experience by the audience (Reuben, n. pag.).

Foil• A character who provides a strong contrast to

another character.• A foil may emphasize another character’s

distinctive traits or make a character look better by comparison.

Dialogue• A conversation between

characters in a literary work.

• Dialogue brings characters to life by revealing their personalities and by showing what they are thinking and feeling as they react to other characters.

Soliloquies

• A long speech delivered by a character who is alone onstage.

• A soliloquy typically reveals the private thoughts and emotions of the character.

Asides

• In a play, a comment made by a character, but is not heard by the other characters onstage.

• Asides are frequently used to provide information to the audience and to reveal the private thoughts of characters.

Stage Directions• Scene Directions

– These start the play or act and they are pushed halfway over to the right side of the page. This is where you give the basics of where and when this particular scene is set, and what is happening as the lights come up and perhaps what has happened between the scenes as it applies to what is on the stage at that time (Script Frenzy, n. pag.).

Example:

Scene One (A truck stop diner in

late August, 1977. The place is deserted except for DORA, the resident waitress…)

WADE: You have coffee on?

Stage Directions

• Staging Directions– These describe what

happens on stage during the scene. Entrances, exits, major movements of characters, new characters, fights, light changes and being chased by a bear are all examples of action that would require stage direction (Script Frenzy, n. pag.).

Example:

DORA: Pick your poison.

(WADE sidles up to a stool at thecounter a few down from her).

WADE: Can I get a grape soda?

Stage Directions• Character Stage Directions

– These are always brief and fit right under the character tag, relating to that character. These types of directions give a clue to the style of the line. Often they are line directions such as "waving him off" or "sing-song" or "whispering to ROBERT". These should be used sparingly, as they are regarded as directorial. They are needed only when a reader wouldn't understand what was going on without them (Script Frenzy, n. pag..

Example:

Wade: (Rubbing his belly). Um…yea… and a sandwich, too.

Works Cited

“Drama,” 2012. 31 January 2012 http://drb.lifestreamcenter.net/Lessons/Drama.htm.Reuben, Paul. “Elements of Drama,” 2012. 31

January 2012 http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/append/axh.html.Script Frenzy. “How to Format a Stage Play,” 2012.

31 January 2012 http://scriptfrenzy.org/howtoformatastageplay.