Drama Flashcards
Drama which is meant to be read, not performed.
Closet Drama
Drama treating a serious subject and involving persons of significance
Tragedy
The purging of pity and fear that the audience is supposed to experience while watching a tragedy. (According to Aristotle.)
Catharsis
Drama which is meant primarily to appeal to the emotions. This form of drama features tragic elements but also happy endings. It usually features “stock” characters.
Melodrama
Drama treating themes and characters with humor. Typically with a happy ending.
Comedy
Humor which diminishes a person, idea, or institution by ridiculing it or holding it up to scorn.
Satire
Comedy in which stereotypical characters engage in boisterous horseplay and slapstick humor, all the while making jokes and sexual innuendoes.
Farce
Characters who, instead of manifesting dignity and power, are ineffectual or petty.
Antiheroes
Comedies which rely on the morbid and the absurd.
Black/Dark Comedies
Comedies which start from the assumption that the human condition is irrational. (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is an example of this form of theater.)
Theater of the Absurd
Information on the printed page which moves readers from place to place by specifying entrances and exits and identifying changes in setting. Notes in a play concerning scenery, props, lighting, music, sound effects, costumes, and other elements which contribute to the way the play looks and sounds to an audience.
Stage Directions
Speech between multiple characters.
Dialogue
An extended speech by one character.
Monologue
Monologue revealing a character’s thoughts and feelings. Directed to the audience, rather than other characters.
Soliloquy
Brief comments directed to the audience.
Asides
The point at which the action in the play peaks.
Climax
The moment, following the climax of a tragedy, in which the protagonist begins to understand the implications of events that will lead to his or her downfall.
Catastrophe
