Preview

Drama Concept

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
505 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Drama Concept
Literature The nature of drama

Drama utilizes plot and characters, develops a theme, arouses emotion or appeals to humor. It may be escapist or interpretive. Much drama is poetry. But drama has one characteristic, it is written primarily to be performed, not read. It presents its actions through actors, on a stage, and before an audience. Of the four major points of view open for a fiction writer, dramatists are limited to one- the objective, or dramatic. Dramatists cannot enter the minds of their character, although there are ways around these limitations through the conventions of soliloquy and aside. In soliloquies characters talk to themselves, they think out loud. In asides characters speak directly to the audience, and they let the audience know what they are really thinking. Both conventions can effectively be used in theatre but they interrupt action and it is inappropriate if the playwright is working in realistic mode. Because the play presents its action on a stage there are a lot of reasons it can forcefully attract the spectators attention, like the fact that the stage is lighted and the theatre is dark. Drama writers find it difficult to shift scenes rapidly than writers of prose fiction. The latter may whisk their readers from heaven to earth and back again very fast, but playwrights usually stick to one setting for a long period of time and may feel constrained to do so for the whole play. Playwrights cannot also present events too big for the stage, for example movement of armies and warfare. Plays are usually separated by an intermission, they are written so that its central meanings may be grasped in a single performance. Drama imposes sharp limitations on the writer but holds out the opportunity for extraordinary force.

Realistic and Non-realistic drama

Literary truth in drama is not the same as fidelity to fact. Because it is written to be performed drama adds still another dimension of possible

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    A short play is usually filled with a theatrical energy of diverse anthologies. The time allotted may be only ten or fifteen minutes, so it must be able to capture and engage the audience with some dramatic tension, exciting action, or witty humor. Just as in a short story, a great deal of the explanation and background is left for the reader or viewer to discover on their own. Because all the details are not explicitly stated, each viewer interprets the action in their own way and each experience is unique from someone else viewing the same play. Conflict is the main aspect that drives any work of literature, and plays usually consist of some form of conflict. In “Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson,” Rich Orloff explores these common elements of plays and creates an original by “gathering all clichés into one story and satirizing them” (Orloff as cited by Meyer, 2009, p. 1352).…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Female of the Species is written by Joanna Murray-Smith, and directed by Kate Cherry. The plot is inspired by an incident in 200 when feminist author Germaine Greer was held captive in her own home by a mentally unstable student. The play manipulates dramatic elements, particularly tension, symbols, and mood to create dramatic meaning.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    2: The third lesson exploring the relationship between Mickey and Edward using an extract from the text. Evaluate the role-play exercise with Alfie’s pair.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Michael Gow's "Away".

    • 1449 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Drama is a genre that is deliberately written for performance, and therefore, the reader's understanding of the characters and issues is always improved by its staging.…

    • 1449 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to the North America Drama Therapy Association (NADTA), drama therapy is “a creative arts therapy method that integrates role play, stories, improvisation, and other techniques taken from the theater with the theories and methods of therapy” (NADTA , 2015).…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Drama is written for theatre production. Actors impersonate the characters by reciting the words that are written in the play. For example, Maurya the main character in the play Riders to the Sea, says the closing words to her son before he left home: “You’d do right to leave that rope, Bartley, hanging by the boards…for it’s a deep grave we’ll make him by the grace of God.” The actors must also follow the author’s directions. She kneels down and the curtain falls slowly. (Clugston, 2010) Drama and play are written for specific purposes. The poem, when it is performed, is similar to an actor doing a soliloquy in a play. For example Macbeth’s speech: “I have lived long enough: my way of life Is fall’n into the sere, the yellow; And that which should accompany old age, As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends, I must not look to have; but, in their stead, Curses, not loud but deep,…

    • 598 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The word drama, first used in the course of the 16th century, comes from the Greek drama, meaning “action”, or “to do”. In Wertenbaker’s Our Country’s Good, one of the aims of drama is to exhibit a picture of human life, and consider some of the difficulties a human being experiences in his life, such as finding one’s genuine identity. Our Country’s Good enables the spectator and the reader to follow the main characters and the way they evolve thanks to the play’s influence. As Whisehammer states “a play should make you understand something new”, that is, in this case, understanding and choosing who one really is.…

    • 3700 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bibliography: -Haseman, Brad, and John O 'Toole. Dramawise: an Introduction to the Elements of Drama. Richmond, Vic.: Heinemann Educational Australia, 1988. Print.…

    • 2246 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Literary Analysis Essay

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages

    When the drama attains a characterization which makes the play a revelation of human conduct and dialogue which characterizes yet pleases for itself, we reach dramatic literature. – George P. Baker.…

    • 1434 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Romeo and Juliet

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, Dramatic speech is the use of the literary elements such as; soliloquy, aside, and monologue. Soliloquy is a lengthy speech in which a character, usually alone on stage, expresses his or her feelings that are unheard by other characters. For example, Act IV scene iii lines 14-58, “Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again...” This enables the reader to better understand the play. An aside is when a character reveals his or her true feelings that are unheard by other characters. For example, Act V scene iii lines 10-11 Paris states, “I am almost afraid to stand alone here in the churchyard; yet I will adventure.” This helps the audience understand the play. A monologue is a lengthy speech by one person addressed to other characters. For example, Act III scene ii lines 97-127, by Juliet, “shall I speak ill of him that is my husband?...” This also helps the reader understand the play better.…

    • 509 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Map to Playwriting

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Writing a play is the same with transportation. The driver or the commuter is the playwright. He drives or rides a vehicle as the writer steers or traverses along his story. The vehicle runs on fuel, which might be the equated to the author’s creativity and motivation to write that powers the story. Starting a play goes through a lot of planning and conceptualizing because if the writer does not know where his story is going, he is just as good as lost in the road. And this is where the map of the play—the premise—becomes the keystone concept of playwriting.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Anabelle Lee talk show

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performancerather than just reading. Plays are performed at a variety of levels, from Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional theater, to Community theatre, as well a University or school productions. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed or read. The term "play" can refer to both the written works of playwrights and to their complete theatrical performance.[1]…

    • 1254 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Quarterly 46.2 (Spring 1978): 65-72. Rpt. in Drama Criticism. Vol. 31. Detroit: Gale, 2008. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    it took to write the plays. The circumstances of the plays varied from play to play. Performances…

    • 1781 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    "The life of a character should be an unbroken line of events and emotions, but a play only gives us a few moments on that line - we must create the rest to portray a convincing…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics