introduction to drama for beginners and esl learners
DESCRIPTION
A good compilation with acknowledgment and provides comparison of medieval and Modern drama. It helps to analyse drama critically.TRANSCRIPT
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Dr. Vijayeswari Subba NaiduJazan University
DRAMA
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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
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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
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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.
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Elements of Drama• Playwright-the author of a play• Actors-the people who perform• Acts-the units of action • Scenes-parts of the acts
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Dramatic Speech
• Dialogue-conversation between or among characters
• Monologue-long speech by one single character (private thoughts)
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Conflict
• The internal or external struggle between opposing forces, ideas, or interests that create dramatic tension.
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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
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Theatre
• Where a play takes place or enacted
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Set• Construction on the stage that shows time/place• Could be called Scenery
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Props
• Small movable items that the actors use to make actions look real
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Characterization
• Is the playwright’s technique for creating believable characters.
1) Indirect
2) Direct
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Types of Drama
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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
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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
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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
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The main characters in a comedy could be anyone:
nobility servantstownspeople
Comedy
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• Comic complications always occur before the conflict is resolved.
• In most cases, the play ends with a wedding.
Comedy- conflicts
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Modern Comedy
• Modern Comedies– In modern comedies, the genders in this romantic
plot pattern sometimes are reversed.
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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
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Modern playwrights often experiment with unconventional plot structures.
Modern Drama
long flashbacksmusic
visual projections of a character’s private
thoughts
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Comparison of Medieval and modern
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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How to read ?..- Instruction for students
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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.
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Performance of a Play
Theater artists include Actors
Directors
Lighting technicians
Stage crew
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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.
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“In the round” stage is surrounded by an audience on all sides.
Setting the Stage
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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
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Setting the Stage
Stages in Shakespeare’s time were thrust stages.
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Scene design transforms a bare stage into the world of the play. Scene design consists of
• props
• sets
• costumes
• lighting
Scene design
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A stage’s set might be
realistic and detailed
Set
abstract and minimal
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A lighting director skillfully uses light to change the mood and appearance of the set.
Light
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The costume director works with the director to design the actors’ costumes.
• Like sets, costumes can be
detailed minimal
Costume
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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
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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
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Finally, a play needs an audience to
experience the performance
understand the story
respond to the characters
The Audience
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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
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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
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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?
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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?
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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