Drama

1. Drama

2. Dramatic Structure Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves characters who face a problem or conflict. Climax point of highest tension;action determines how the conflict will be resolved Complications tension builds Resolution conflict is resolved; play ends Expositioncharacters and conflictare introduced

3. Dramatic Structure Conflictisa 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

4. Modern Drama A modern play • may be tragedy, comedy, or a mixture of the two • usually focuses on personal issues • usuallyis about ordinary people

5. Modern Drama Modern playwrights often experiment with unconventional plot structures. long flashbacks music visual projections of a character’s private thoughts

6. Set A stage’s set might be realistic and detailed abstract and minimal

7. Lighting A lighting director skillfully uses light to change the mood and appearance of the set.

8. Costumes The costume director works with the director to design the actors’ costumes. • Like sets, costumes can be minimal detailed

9. Props 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.

10. The Characters The characters’ speech may take any of the following forms.

11. Factors affecting the growth of Modern Drama • Industrial Revolution—poverty and crime • Real people involved in life like situations • Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution (1859) • ( Survival of the Fittest) • SigmondFrued’s psychoanalytic theory (1856—1939)

12. Darwin’s theory • Common Ancestry Heredity and Environment Shared Responsibility Humanity and nature incorporated • Evolution by Survival of the Fittest Competition Contradictory to Religion

13. Freud’s Theory • Only Human Instincts– Aggression and Sexuality • Alone—satisfaction of their instinct • In Community—must undergo socialization Learning what is acceptable and unacceptable through punishment and reward Morality relative, not absolute

14. Suppression of desires and urges no full understanding of others no certainty of our own motives To asses people and situations, we should note; • What is consciously said and done + • What is not said or done So • Moral Values are relative • Language and behavior only partially reliable indicators of a person’s state of mind.

15. Aims • Demonstration of the chaos and incoherence of ordinary speech • Revelation of fundamental problems in society • ▼ • social criticism

16. Feature of Modern Drama • Working class background • violence, which has some strange fascination • fears of different kinds • Ruthlessness • inability to communicate >> lack of • communication • loneliness • ▼ • craving for love / friendship / close • relationships • sex (often not heterosexual)

17. Style • Satire • sick humour

18. Realism Naturalism Modern Drama Epic theatre Expressionism Theatre of the Absurd Symbolism Theatre of Anger

19. Realism ( 1850s) • Selection of certain details from life and its development into a credible whole through imagination • Real people involved in life like situations • Contemporary problem of life • Objectivity • Sex only implicitly hinted—obscenity avoided • Characters usually from upper or middle class

20. Naturalism (1870s) • Built on Realism • Real people, real situations, contemp. Ideas • Perfect imitation of life through copying all details without selection • Explicit treatment of sex—obscenity • Believed in the power of heredity and environ. • Fight for survival against a mechanical universe— social, economical and political pressures • Emphasize deprivation and degradation of lower classes

21. Symbolism • Opposed to realism--truth • Ultimate truth not through five senses—intuition • Cannot be expressed through rational means • Suggested through symbols that evoke feelings • Subjects—Past or realm of Fancy • Avoid social problems and environmental forces • Little scenery

22. Theatre of the Absurd • the human condition --fundamentally absurd - not open to understanding or knowledge on the part of humans, life is simply lived, acknowledging the inherent absurdity of existence. • plays feature illogical and purposeless activity in place of plot; • dialogue presents endless contradictions between language and action; • a bare stage that defied conventional ideas about spectacle and special lighting or other effects.

23. Epic Theatre • Purpose—alienation of the audience • Lighting unmasked • Scenery fragmentary • Musician sometimes on the stage • Objects flown on visible ropes • Actors singing or talking to audiences

24. Expressionism • Counters materialism and industrialism—perverters of human spirit—turned human beings into machines • See the world through distorted vision of man • Walls and rooms may lean in threateningly • Movement and speech may be robot-like • Colour may show emotions • Regeneration of man

25. Theatre of Anger • Frustrated Younger generation • Angry • Disillusioned

26. Henrik IbsenEarly life

27. Early Early Life • March 20, 1828 - 23 May 1906 • The oldest of five children • Born to Marichen Altenburg and Knud Ibsen • Wealthy family • Bankrupt—5 years

28. Work and Travel • Family life influences work • At fifteen, Ibsen forced to leave school • Grimstad( a small town) at age 15 • Apprenticeship at the Pharmacist • Child at 18 • Failed to enter the university • Turned to writing plays

29. Central Theme • “unremitting portrayals of suffering women”

30. Works of Henrik Ibsen • 1850 - Catiline (Catilina) • 1850 - The Burial Mound also known as The Warrior's Barrow (Kjæmpehøjen) • 1851 - Norma (Norma) • 1852 - St. John's Eve (Sancthansnatten) • 1854 - Lady Inger of Oestraat (FruIngertilØsteraad) • 1855 - The Feast at Solhaug (GildetpaaSolhoug) • 1856 - Olaf Liljekrans (Olaf Liljekrans) • 1857 - The Vikings at Helgeland (HærmændenepaaHelgeland) • 1862 - Digte - only released collection of poetry • 1862 - Love's Comedy (KjærlighedensKomedie) • 1863 - The Pretenders (Kongs-Emnerne) • 1866 - Brand (Brand) • 1867 - Peer Gynt (Peer Gynt) • 1869 - The League of Youth (De ungesForbund) • 1873 - Emperor and Galilean (KejserogGalilæer) • 1877 - Pillars of Society (SamfundetsStøtter) • 1879 - A Doll's House (Et Dukkehjem) • 1881 - Ghosts (Gengangere) • 1882 - An Enemy of the People (En Folkefiende) • 1884 - The Wild Duck (Vildanden) • 1886 - Rosmersholm (Rosmersholm) • 1888 - The Lady from the Sea (FruenfraHavet) • 1890 - HeddaGabler (HeddaGabler) • 1892 - The Master Builder (BygmesterSolness) • 1896 - John Gabriel Borkman (John Gabriel Borkm

31. Important International EventsWomen Rights • 1833 Oberlin College becomes first co-educational university in the USA • 1837 First Anti-Slavery Society (women) meets in New York • 1839 Married Women’s Property Act, women can own property in name only. (Mississippi) • 1844 Lowell Female Labour Reform Association (LFLRA) demand 10 hour work days, one of first women’s labour unions.

32. 1848 First Women’s Right convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. • 1849 First Woman to have a medical degree in the USA (First female medical doctor) • 1861-5 Women support war movement, but disrupt women’s rights movement. • 1872 Mothers without husbands can maintain a homestead (Canada)

33. Began with a tragedy—not successful Next plays successful—encouraged to introduce his own beliefs and judgments about drama • Moved to Drama of Ideas • To psychological realism

34. Ibsen-the psychologist • In Ibsen's psychological analyses, he reveals the negative forces (he calls them "demons" and "trolls" in the minds of people. These people pursue their own goals, involuntarily trampling on the lives of others, are all drawn from the playwright's last decade of writing.

35. Ibsen-the psychologist • His human characterization in these latter dramas is extremely complex - a common factor shared by all his last works, starting with "The Wild Duck" in 1884. • In these plays, realism, symbolism, and deep-digging psychological insights interact.

36. A desperate drama • Ibsen's work as a writer represents a long poetic contemplation of people's need to live differently than they do. Thus there is always a deep undercurrent of desperation in his work. • Portrayals of these people who live in constant expectation and who are consumed by their pursuit of "something else" in life, could be termed as "a desperate drama".

37. The distance between • what they can achieve ability and • what they want to achieve aspiration is the cause of the tragic (and in many cases the comic) "humanity's and the individual's tragedy and comedy simultaneously."

38. the basis of Ibsen's human portrayal is his characters' conceptions of what makes life worth living - their values and their understanding of existence

39. The End