Post by ernesto thaddeus m. solmerano on Jun 15, 2007 22:23:02 GMT -5
Drama
Drama comes from Greek word dran meaning “to do” or “to act.” It is “a creative art form, made up of words, which is meant to be performed on stage”. It is “an imitation or a portrayal of life and its intricacies on a stage through actions and performances of theater actors”. A play is a story acted out. It shows people going through some eventful period in their lives, seriously or hilariously. The speech and action of a play recreate the flow of human life. A play comes fully to life only on the stage. Drama is a means of self-expression, where actors showcase their inherent talents on the stage, which is interwoven with other elements like music, dance, instruments, props, mikes and lights to make it more appealing to the audience. On the stage it combines many arts those of the author, director, actor, designer, and others. Dramatic performance involves an intricate process of rehearsal based upon imagery inherent in the dramatic text. A playwright first invents a drama out of mental imagery. The dramatic text presents the drama as a range of verbal imagery. The language of drama can range between great extremes: on the one hand, an intensely theatrical and ritualistic manner; and on the other, an almost exact reproduction of real life.
Drama vs. Theater
The term “drama” refers to a literary genre that provides written text in form of a play script. In thus, it follows similar conventions as other narratives. The actual realization of the script in the form of actors performing on a stage in front of an audience is called “theater”. Therefore, theater can be called the verbalization/visualization of drama, since actors use the script as a basis on which they build their performance on stage. Generally, the relation between drama and theater can also be described as the relation between script/text and performance (of said text).
Different Types of Drama
The drama elements that dominate the play will largely decide the type of play it is to be. It the play is of a serious nature, it will be either a tragedy or a melodrama; if it is to be treated in a lighter vein, even though the subject itself is as a serious one, it may be a comedy or a farce. The very “requirements” that are here listed for each of the four types are arbitrary and may change in time. Though they may even now be debated, they have been derived from what is generally considered as the best of our dramatic literature in the various types.
1. Tragedy
Tragedy is a drama in which a character (usually a good and noble person of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior force (fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values), but also comes to understand the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment. Often the protagonist's downfall is a direct result of a fatal flaw in his or her character.
Requirements of Tragedy
1. The play must concern a serious subject.
2. The leading character must be a great figure or one that is representative of a class. He must represent more than an individual.
3. The incidents must be absolutely honest and without the element of coincidence or chance. What should happen must happen.
4. The basic emotions are those of pity and fear – pity for the protagonist in his suffering, and fear that the same fate might come to us.
5. In the final analysis the protagonist must meet defeat, but before that defeat must come enlightenment or the catharsis of Aristotle.
2. Melodrama
Melodrama is a term applied to any literary work that relies on implausible events and sensational action for its effect. The conflicts in melodramas typically arise out of plot rather than characterization; often a virtuous individual must somehow confront and overcome a wicked oppressor. Usually, a melodramatic story ends happily, with the protagonist defeating the antagonist at the last possible moment. Thus, melodramas entertain the reader or audience with exciting action while still conforming to a traditional sense of justice.
Requirements of Melodrama
1. It treats of a serious subject.
2. The characters are more loosely drawn than in tragedy, and this makes it easier for the audience to identify itself with the characters, thus creating a stronger empathic response.
3. Whereas tragedy must be absolutely honest, the element of chance enters into the melodrama. It is episodic and the most exciting incidents possible are brought into the play.
4. There may be an emotion of pity, but it borders on sentimentality. Fear may be evident, but it is of a more temporary or surface type.
5. There is no real enlightenment even in defeat, and in most instances the protagonist does win his battle.
3. Comedy
Comedy is a work intended to interest, involve, and amuse the reader or audience, in which no terrible disaster occurs and that ends happily for the main characters. High comedy refers to verbal wit, such as puns, whereas low comedy is generally associated with physical action and is less intellectual. Romantic comedy involves a love affair that meets with various obstacles (like disapproving parents, mistaken identities, deceptions, or other sorts of misunderstandings) but overcomes them to end in a blissful union.
Requirements of Comedy
A survey of the best comedies in twenty-five hundred years of theatre shows that comedy:
1. treats its subject in a lighter vein even though the subject may be a serious one;
2. provokes what can be defined as “thoughtful laughter”; is both possible and probable;
3. grows out of character rather than situation;
4. is honest in its portrayal of life.
4. Farce
Farce is a play that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick, pratfalls, or other physical humor. It is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable.
Requirements of Farce
The qualities of farce which have been most constant through the ages show that it:
1. has as its object riotous laughter and escape;
2. asks the audience to accept certain improbabilities, but from that point proceeds in a life-like manner;
3. is dominated by situation rather than character, and calls for little or no thought;
4. must move very rapidly in an episodic manner, and is believable only for the moment.
Elements of Dramatic Literature
Drama is developed and formed by the drama elements, which are as follows:
Plot
A plot is what occurs in a narrative. It is a sequence of carefully constructed, causally related events that starts in an unstable situation, progresses through conflict, reaches a point of complexity, and resolve the conflicts, lives are straightened out or ended, and loose ends are tied up. The structures of a plot are generally specified as (1) exposition, (2) rising action, (3) climax, (4) falling action, and (5) denouement or conclusion or resolution.
Character
A character in a play is an imagined person created by the playwright to represent the play's action, speech, thoughts, and feelings. Dramatic characters, like those in fiction, maybe both round and flat. A flat character does not develop or change as the play progresses. A round character, on the other hand, changes or evolves as the play goes on. Characters in drama may either be static – that is, fixed and unchanging – or dynamic – changing and developing.
Setting
Setting in drama establishes the story's action in a specific time and place, helps create the appropriate mood or atmosphere, and determines the play's level of reality.
Language and Texts
Language refers to using spoken or written words that adhere to certain conventions and language registers to express thoughts, feelings, and other associations.
Texts refer to the use of written texts, online materials, and other compositions that add meaning to the drama.
Tone
Tone in drama refers to the moods and attitudes that the writer established towards the subject and the audience. Tone in plays can be communicated explicitly to the audience through dialogue and stage gestures such as shaking one's head, throwing up one's hands, rolling one's eyes, leaping with excitement, and staggering backward in grief. Also, silence can be a tool for establishing tone and mood.
Symbols
Symbols in drama may be persons, places, objects, actions, situations, or statements representing something else. Dramatic symbols can be either universal and personal. Crosses, flags, spiders, and flowers are universal symbols interpreted by the audience or reader regardless of the context in which they appear. Private symbols only impact the context of a specific play or even a particular scene and gain symbolic significance by context and continued intervention.
Subject and Theme
The subject of a play is represented by the aspects of humanity that the playwright explores. Thus, a play may be about love, faith, jealousy, war, ambition, death, etc.
The play's theme or meaning is comprised of the ideas that it dramatizes regarding its subject. The theme is the culmination of all the other elements of drama; it is one of the things we are left thinking about after reading a play or seeing a production. As a result, we must pay close attention to the characters' words, actions, and expressions.
Drama comes from Greek word dran meaning “to do” or “to act.” It is “a creative art form, made up of words, which is meant to be performed on stage”. It is “an imitation or a portrayal of life and its intricacies on a stage through actions and performances of theater actors”. A play is a story acted out. It shows people going through some eventful period in their lives, seriously or hilariously. The speech and action of a play recreate the flow of human life. A play comes fully to life only on the stage. Drama is a means of self-expression, where actors showcase their inherent talents on the stage, which is interwoven with other elements like music, dance, instruments, props, mikes and lights to make it more appealing to the audience. On the stage it combines many arts those of the author, director, actor, designer, and others. Dramatic performance involves an intricate process of rehearsal based upon imagery inherent in the dramatic text. A playwright first invents a drama out of mental imagery. The dramatic text presents the drama as a range of verbal imagery. The language of drama can range between great extremes: on the one hand, an intensely theatrical and ritualistic manner; and on the other, an almost exact reproduction of real life.
Drama vs. Theater
The term “drama” refers to a literary genre that provides written text in form of a play script. In thus, it follows similar conventions as other narratives. The actual realization of the script in the form of actors performing on a stage in front of an audience is called “theater”. Therefore, theater can be called the verbalization/visualization of drama, since actors use the script as a basis on which they build their performance on stage. Generally, the relation between drama and theater can also be described as the relation between script/text and performance (of said text).
Different Types of Drama
The drama elements that dominate the play will largely decide the type of play it is to be. It the play is of a serious nature, it will be either a tragedy or a melodrama; if it is to be treated in a lighter vein, even though the subject itself is as a serious one, it may be a comedy or a farce. The very “requirements” that are here listed for each of the four types are arbitrary and may change in time. Though they may even now be debated, they have been derived from what is generally considered as the best of our dramatic literature in the various types.
1. Tragedy
Tragedy is a drama in which a character (usually a good and noble person of high rank) is brought to a disastrous end in his or her confrontation with a superior force (fortune, the gods, social forces, universal values), but also comes to understand the meaning of his or her deeds and to accept an appropriate punishment. Often the protagonist's downfall is a direct result of a fatal flaw in his or her character.
Requirements of Tragedy
1. The play must concern a serious subject.
2. The leading character must be a great figure or one that is representative of a class. He must represent more than an individual.
3. The incidents must be absolutely honest and without the element of coincidence or chance. What should happen must happen.
4. The basic emotions are those of pity and fear – pity for the protagonist in his suffering, and fear that the same fate might come to us.
5. In the final analysis the protagonist must meet defeat, but before that defeat must come enlightenment or the catharsis of Aristotle.
2. Melodrama
Melodrama is a term applied to any literary work that relies on implausible events and sensational action for its effect. The conflicts in melodramas typically arise out of plot rather than characterization; often a virtuous individual must somehow confront and overcome a wicked oppressor. Usually, a melodramatic story ends happily, with the protagonist defeating the antagonist at the last possible moment. Thus, melodramas entertain the reader or audience with exciting action while still conforming to a traditional sense of justice.
Requirements of Melodrama
1. It treats of a serious subject.
2. The characters are more loosely drawn than in tragedy, and this makes it easier for the audience to identify itself with the characters, thus creating a stronger empathic response.
3. Whereas tragedy must be absolutely honest, the element of chance enters into the melodrama. It is episodic and the most exciting incidents possible are brought into the play.
4. There may be an emotion of pity, but it borders on sentimentality. Fear may be evident, but it is of a more temporary or surface type.
5. There is no real enlightenment even in defeat, and in most instances the protagonist does win his battle.
3. Comedy
Comedy is a work intended to interest, involve, and amuse the reader or audience, in which no terrible disaster occurs and that ends happily for the main characters. High comedy refers to verbal wit, such as puns, whereas low comedy is generally associated with physical action and is less intellectual. Romantic comedy involves a love affair that meets with various obstacles (like disapproving parents, mistaken identities, deceptions, or other sorts of misunderstandings) but overcomes them to end in a blissful union.
Requirements of Comedy
A survey of the best comedies in twenty-five hundred years of theatre shows that comedy:
1. treats its subject in a lighter vein even though the subject may be a serious one;
2. provokes what can be defined as “thoughtful laughter”; is both possible and probable;
3. grows out of character rather than situation;
4. is honest in its portrayal of life.
4. Farce
Farce is a play that is characterized by broad humor, wild antics, and often slapstick, pratfalls, or other physical humor. It is a comedy that aims at entertaining the audience through situations that are highly exaggerated, extravagant, and thus improbable.
Requirements of Farce
The qualities of farce which have been most constant through the ages show that it:
1. has as its object riotous laughter and escape;
2. asks the audience to accept certain improbabilities, but from that point proceeds in a life-like manner;
3. is dominated by situation rather than character, and calls for little or no thought;
4. must move very rapidly in an episodic manner, and is believable only for the moment.
Elements of Dramatic Literature
Drama is developed and formed by the drama elements, which are as follows:
Plot
A plot is what occurs in a narrative. It is a sequence of carefully constructed, causally related events that starts in an unstable situation, progresses through conflict, reaches a point of complexity, and resolve the conflicts, lives are straightened out or ended, and loose ends are tied up. The structures of a plot are generally specified as (1) exposition, (2) rising action, (3) climax, (4) falling action, and (5) denouement or conclusion or resolution.
Character
A character in a play is an imagined person created by the playwright to represent the play's action, speech, thoughts, and feelings. Dramatic characters, like those in fiction, maybe both round and flat. A flat character does not develop or change as the play progresses. A round character, on the other hand, changes or evolves as the play goes on. Characters in drama may either be static – that is, fixed and unchanging – or dynamic – changing and developing.
Setting
Setting in drama establishes the story's action in a specific time and place, helps create the appropriate mood or atmosphere, and determines the play's level of reality.
Language and Texts
Language refers to using spoken or written words that adhere to certain conventions and language registers to express thoughts, feelings, and other associations.
Texts refer to the use of written texts, online materials, and other compositions that add meaning to the drama.
Tone
Tone in drama refers to the moods and attitudes that the writer established towards the subject and the audience. Tone in plays can be communicated explicitly to the audience through dialogue and stage gestures such as shaking one's head, throwing up one's hands, rolling one's eyes, leaping with excitement, and staggering backward in grief. Also, silence can be a tool for establishing tone and mood.
Symbols
Symbols in drama may be persons, places, objects, actions, situations, or statements representing something else. Dramatic symbols can be either universal and personal. Crosses, flags, spiders, and flowers are universal symbols interpreted by the audience or reader regardless of the context in which they appear. Private symbols only impact the context of a specific play or even a particular scene and gain symbolic significance by context and continued intervention.
Subject and Theme
The subject of a play is represented by the aspects of humanity that the playwright explores. Thus, a play may be about love, faith, jealousy, war, ambition, death, etc.
The play's theme or meaning is comprised of the ideas that it dramatizes regarding its subject. The theme is the culmination of all the other elements of drama; it is one of the things we are left thinking about after reading a play or seeing a production. As a result, we must pay close attention to the characters' words, actions, and expressions.