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Drama. AP English Lit. & Comp. Drama. Drama is a performed art. It comes to exist only through performance on a stage. If it is not performed it is simply fiction. Drama is a visual form.
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Drama AP English Lit. & Comp.
Drama • Drama is a performed art. • It comes to exist only through performance on a stage. If it is not performed it is simply fiction. • Drama is a visual form. • Drama can exist without words, but it cannot exist without actors in motion, actors intending to be seen. • Drama is a collaborative form. • Two or more people work together to create a production – the playwright, actors, director, etc.
Script - • The text of the play that provides information that leads to the work of art – it is not the work of art in itself. • The performance is the work of art. • Even Shakespeare only sold his plays to his acting company, not to printers. Only half of his plays even appeared in print during his lifetime.
Early Drama in England • The focus of early English drama was religious – often based on saint’s lives, Bible stories, or the temptations of allegorical figures representing humankind. • Amateur playwrights and actors performed plays on movable stages built on large wagons. • Arena Stage – also called “theatre in the round” where the stage is set in the middle and the audience is seated all around.
Stages of Drama • In England, drama developed fully only after special buildings arose to hold such playing spaces in the 1570s, ‘80s, and ‘90s. • “Playhouse” – a pretending space • “Theatre” – a seeing place
Theatres • Public theatres – cost was low, outdoor theatres, plays took place in the afternoon, could seat up to 2,500 people. • Most common stages include: • The “platform” or “thrust” stage, which jutted out into the middle, with audiences on three sides. • Proscenium arch stage
Thrust Stages • The stage of late 1600s theatres in London, performers did not strive to create and illusion of reality. • Scenery and furnishings were simple and minimal • Costumes were not perfect for time periods. • Characters addressed audiences directly in soliloquys and asides, or might appear from the audience to interrupt a play already in progress. • Characters who were supposed to be in two different places could appear on stage together.
Proscenium Arch Stage • Became the characteristic playing space of realistic drama in the late nineteenth century. • Became a medium for more realistic drama because it sets the performers apart from the audience, and functions as an illuminated box – the audience in the dark and lighting on the stage. • Detailed furnishings and costumes create illusion of reality.
Visualization • You can read drama well only if you know what these stages look like – arena, thrust, and proscenium. • See the characters moving on these stages in your mind, letting the stage directions guide you.
Dialogue • As you must “see” in your mind to read drama well, you must also “hear” in your mind – to become sensitive to the art of dramatic dialogue. • To read drama well, clear from you mind the habits of reading fiction, and think of the work as performed by living people, speaking back and forth. • Video
Questioning • As you respond to drama, you can also interpret drama, and express yourself by interpreting. To do this, we need to constantly be thinking in questions. • What is the chief relationship in the play? • What is the chief interpersonal conflict? • Drama depends on conflicts to be dramatic, and human drama depends on relationships.
Questioning Human Conflict • What does one character want from another? • Why does this character want it so intensely? • What does this character fear about another? • What does this character fear this so intensely? • What about the other way around? • These questions should help you uncover information that is significant, valuable, and revealing.
Reading Aloud • Try to find in yourself the emotions appropriate to the character. • Express these emotions as you are reading. • This will help to think critically about how the characters would feel about a situation, and also allow you to express yourself as you read the parts.
Summary • Drama is a form that comes to exist only in a playing space. The more you play with drama–pretend with it–the better you will read. • Play in your mind by seeing stages and performances. Let the playwrights' stage directions assist you. • Play by reading dialogue aloud and listening for the give and take. • Play by pretending the characters in a drama are alive and by asking questions about their wishes, their fears, and their relationships. • Play by working as an actor, improvising. • The more you play with drama, the better you will read.
