what is drama? structure of a drama kinds of plays tragedy comedy modern drama performance of a play...
TRANSCRIPT
What Is Drama?
Structure of a Drama
Kinds of Plays
Tragedy
Comedy
Modern Drama
Performance of a Play
The Stage
The Characters
Review
Practice
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 Plays
Quick Check
1. 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
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• 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
Tragedy—a narrative about serious and important events that lead to a disastrous outcome
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
• A tragedy usually ends with the deaths of the main characters.
• Their downfall may be the result of
• character flaws that lead to unwise actions
• fate (events beyond the characters’ control)
• a little bit of both
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
Shakespeare’s tragic plays usually follow a five-part sequence:
Act IExposition
Act VClimax and resolution
Act IIICrisis, or
turning point
Act IIRising action, or complications
Act IVFalling action
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
Exposition
• establishes setting
• introduces characters
• explains background
• introduces characters’main conflict
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
Rising action consists of a series of complications that occur when the main characters take action to resolve their problems.
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
The crisis, or turning point, is the moment when a choice made by the main characters determines the direction of the action.
• In a tragedy, the action heads downward, toward disaster.
• In a comedy, the action heads upward, toward a happy ending.
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
The crisis is the point when all the forces of conflict come together to create the greatest drama and tension of the play.
• Look for the turning point as you read Act III of Romeo and Juliet.
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
Falling action presents events that result from the action taken at the turning point.
• With each event, we see the characters falling deeper into tragedy.
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act IILiterary Focus: Tragedy
Climax is the moment of greatest emotional intensity in the plot.
• In a tragedy, the final and greatest climax occurs near the end of the play and usually consists of the deaths of the main characters.
The Tragedy of Romeo and JulietLiterary Focus: Tragedy
Resolution (or denouement) is the final part of the play.
• All the loose ends are tied up, and the play is over.
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The End