Major Elements of Drama
Aim: Major Elements of Drama
Do Now: What comes to mind when you hear the word drama?
What is a play: A type of literature written by a playwright.
What do you think is involved in a play: Characters, Actors, Plot Structure Pyramid.
Where was Shakespeare’s Plays Stages: The globe teather in London.
Who did he write his plays for? : The Queen
Who was his audience: For everyone.
Who were the actors? Mostly Men were the actors.
How were the characters dressed? They were dressed in the parts that they played.
From what we already know and learned, if you had to put on a play what kind of play would it be, and what would be involved in putting on your play?
Homework:
Catharsis - The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe. A catastrophe is the action at the end of a play that initiates the falling action of a play.
Character - An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static or dynamic. In Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is a major character, but one who is static, like the minor character Bianca. Othello is a major character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.
Climax - The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work.
Conflict - A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work. Conflicts include man vs. man, man vs. self and man vs. society.
Denouement - The resolution of the plot of a literary work.
Dialogue - The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.
Diction - The word choice of the author. These are words that help to convey different attitudes or tones.
Dramatic monologue - A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.
Dramatis personae - Latin for the characters or persons in a play.
Exposition - The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.
Falling action - The action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution.
Monologue - A speech by a single character without another character's response.
Narrator - The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author.
Parody - A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its playful imitation.
Pathos - A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.
Plot - The unified structure of incidents in a literary work.
Point of View - The angle of vision from which a story is narrated. Different point of views include first person, in which the narrator is a character or an observer, third person objective, in which the narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader, third person omniscient, in which the narrator knows everything about the characters, and third person limited omniscient, which allows the narrator to know some things about the characters but not everything.
Resolution - The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story. See Plot.
Rising Action - A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax.
Soliloquy - A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.
Stage Direction - A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. While modern playwrights depend on these stage directions, earlier playwrights hardly used them.
Tragic Flaw - A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Othello's jealousy and too trusting nature is one example.
Do Now: What comes to mind when you hear the word drama?
There are a few things that come to mind. First would more than likely be trouble and over exaggerated situations. But then there is the acting drama.
From what we already know and learned, if you had to put on a play what kind of play would it be, and what would be involved in putting on your play?
Our play would have to be a comedy and tragedy for it would attract a lot of attention. In order for our play to go well, we would need to make sure we have a good plot, a good exposition, an excellent climax, a good falling action and a good rising action in order to trap our audience’s attention. In order to keep their attention, we would need to have an interesting scenery with an excellent costume designer. In order to introduce our play, we would need a narrator and for the play to flow we would need excellent stage directions.
Here is a topic: “If you see something, say something.” Now if this was the name of your play, what monologue/dialogue would you expect or write for this play?
Two drunken men are sitting on a train platform bench, waiting for the train to come. There is a backpack found underneath the bench.
Here is a topic: “If you see something, say something.” Now if this was the name of your play, what monologue/dialogue would you expect or write for this play?
Two drunken men are sitting on a train platform bench, waiting for the train to come. There is a backpack found underneath the bench.
A – “Hey dude do you hear that beeping sound. Its really buggin’ the hell out of me.”
B – “It’s not anything I own. How bout you? Sounds like it is really coming near you dude.”
A – “Nah man. Wait, I think its coming from out of this bag under my seat. Is it yours?”
B – “Doesn’t look like it belongs to anyone and it sure isn't mine. Oh dude, remember what the MTA said? See something, um open it?”
A – “Oh yea I remember that saying. Nah man its See Something, Say Something.”
B – “Should we talk to that smiling booth over there about it?”
A – “Yea, I’ll go.”
B – “It’s not anything I own. How bout you? Sounds like it is really coming near you dude.”
A – “Nah man. Wait, I think its coming from out of this bag under my seat. Is it yours?”
B – “Doesn’t look like it belongs to anyone and it sure isn't mine. Oh dude, remember what the MTA said? See something, um open it?”
A – “Oh yea I remember that saying. Nah man its See Something, Say Something.”
B – “Should we talk to that smiling booth over there about it?”
A – “Yea, I’ll go.”
Homework:
Catharsis - The purging of the feelings of pity and fear that, according to Aristotle, occur in the audience of tragic drama. The audience experiences catharsis at the end of the play, following the catastrophe. A catastrophe is the action at the end of a play that initiates the falling action of a play.
Character - An imaginary person that inhabits a literary work. Literary characters may be major or minor, static or dynamic. In Shakespeare's Othello, Desdemona is a major character, but one who is static, like the minor character Bianca. Othello is a major character who is dynamic, exhibiting an ability to change.
Climax - The turning point of the action in the plot of a play or story. The climax represents the point of greatest tension in the work.
Conflict - A struggle between opposing forces in a story or play, usually resolved by the end of the work. Conflicts include man vs. man, man vs. self and man vs. society.
Denouement - The resolution of the plot of a literary work.
Dialogue - The conversation of characters in a literary work. In fiction, dialogue is typically enclosed within quotation marks. In plays, characters' speech is preceded by their names.
Diction - The word choice of the author. These are words that help to convey different attitudes or tones.
Dramatic monologue - A literary, usually verse composition in which a speaker reveals his or her character, often in relation to a critical situation or event, in a monologue addressed to the reader or to a presumed listener.
Dramatis personae - Latin for the characters or persons in a play.
Exposition - The first stage of a fictional or dramatic plot, in which necessary background information is provided.
Falling action - The action following the climax of the work that moves it towards its denouement or resolution.
Monologue - A speech by a single character without another character's response.
Narrator - The voice and implied speaker of a fictional work, to be distinguished from the actual living author.
Parody - A humorous, mocking imitation of a literary work, sometimes sarcastic, but often playful and even respectful in its playful imitation.
Pathos - A quality of a play's action that stimulates the audience to feel pity for a character. Pathos is always an aspect of tragedy, and may be present in comedy as well.
Plot - The unified structure of incidents in a literary work.
Point of View - The angle of vision from which a story is narrated. Different point of views include first person, in which the narrator is a character or an observer, third person objective, in which the narrator knows or appears to know no more than the reader, third person omniscient, in which the narrator knows everything about the characters, and third person limited omniscient, which allows the narrator to know some things about the characters but not everything.
Resolution - The sorting out or unraveling of a plot at the end of a play, novel, or story. See Plot.
Rising Action - A set of conflicts and crises that constitute the part of a play's or story's plot leading up to the climax.
Soliloquy - A speech in a play that is meant to be heard by the audience but not by other characters on the stage. If there are no other characters present, the soliloquy represents the character thinking aloud.
Stage Direction - A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. While modern playwrights depend on these stage directions, earlier playwrights hardly used them.
Tragic Flaw - A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero. Othello's jealousy and too trusting nature is one example.