Drama Theory

Question 1

What is drama ?

Answer 1

«a composition in prose or verse, adapted to be acted upon a stage, in which a story is related by means of dialogue and action, and is represented with accompanying gesture, costume and scenery, as in real life: a play (OED)
• Sense of immediacy
• The dialogue in front of us is busy doing much more than telling a story. It is creating images, movement, and staging a world.

Question 2

Drama vs theatre

Answer 2

Drama: script, interaction btwn reader and dramatist, abstract entity, liberal arts, humanities education

Theatre: the onstage production of a play, no interaction with dramatist, physical entity, professional actor training

Question 3

Act

Answer 3

Act: “A major division in the action of a play, comprising one or more scenes. A break between acts often coincides with a point at which the action is interrupted before resuming at a later fictional time, or at which it moves to a different venue.” (Baldick 3)

Question 4

Scene

Answer 4

Scene: “A self-contained unit within a play, with its own structure. Scenes can vary greatly in length from a single line or action, to an extended passage over several pages of text.” (Cambridge IGCSE Drama, 2019)

Question 5

Stage directions

Answer 5

scenic arrangements: layout of stage, furnishings, props
• Actor / character: delivery of dialogue, bodily state, traits and personality, emotion, proxemics (blocking), kinesics (movement)
• Setting: setting of events, action happening on scene, the development of the performance

Question 6

Dramatis personae

Answer 6

The Latin phrase for ‘persons of the play’, used to refer collectively to the characters represented in a dramatic work (or, by extension, a narrative work). This phrase is the conventional heading for a list of characters published in the text of a play or in a theatrical programme.” (Baldick 98)»

Question 7

Representation in drama: telling and showing

Answer 7

• Telling (diegesis): representation of the story through the mediation of a narrator, who gives an account and often interprets or comments on the events, environments, or characters of the storyworld.
• Showing (mimesis): the direct representation of the events, environments, and characters of the story without the intervention of a narrator, leaving readers or spectators to make their own inferences or interpretations.

Question 8

The chorus (form of mediation and selection)

Answer 8

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet,
prologue 1-8
Two households, both alike in dignity (In fair Verona, where we lay our scene), From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes A pair of star-crossed lovers take their life; Whose misadventured piteous overthrows Doth with their death bury their parents’ strife.
=> explaining the plot of the play at the beggining so that people know it’s worth watching

Question 9

Ellipsis (form of mediation and selection)

Answer 9

=> with a character whose name is «time»
Shakespeare, A Winter’s Tale, 4.1.4-10
TIME: [I n]ow take upon me, in the name of Time, To use my wings. Impute it not a crime To me or my swift passage that I slide O’er sixteen years, and leave the growth untried Of that wide gap, since it is in my power To o’erthrow law and in one self-born hour To plant and o’erwhelm custom.

Question 10

Types of speech (names)

Answer 10

Monologue
Soliloquy
Aside
Stichomythia
Repartee
Irony

Question 11

Monologue

Answer 11

An extended speech uttered by one speaker to other characters.

Question 12

Soliloquy

Answer 12

A dramatic speech uttered by one character speaking aloud while alone on the stage (or while under the impression of being alone). The soliloquist thus reveals his or her inner thoughts and feelings to the audience, either in supposed self-communion or in a consciously direct address.

Question 13

Aside

Answer 13

speech or remark spoken by a character in a drama, directed either to the audience or to another character, which by convention is supposed to be inaudible to the other characters on stage.

Question 14

Stichomythia

Answer 14

A form of dramatic dialogue in which two disputing characters answer each other rapidly in alternating single lines, with one character’s replies balancing (and often partially repeating) the other’s utterances.

Question 15

Repartee

Answer 15

Rapid and witty response, or a sequence of such exchanges.
Similar to stychomythia, but associated with comedy rather than tragedy
Battle of wits, often (but not always) between prospective lovers (‘war of the sexes’)

Question 16

Irony (three types)

Answer 16

An implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant. There are several forms of irony:
- Verbal irony: is when a writer or speaker says one thing and means something else (often the opposite of what is said)
- Dramatic irony: occurs when the audience knows more than the characters on stage
- Situational irony: can be described as a discrepancy between what is expected and what actually happens.

Question 17

Dramatic theory: origins

Answer 17

Aristotle (poetics, -335)

Question 18

Dramatic plot

Answer 18

Freytag’s Pyramid
Exposition—rising action—climax—falling action—resolution

1. Intro to theme, characters, current situation in the story
2. Series of plot-related incidents. Suspense, interest and tension are created.
3. Pt of greatest intensity in a series of events or progr in a play, forming the turning pt of a plot and leading to some kind of resolution
4. The parts of a plot after the climax, but bf the end of the play. Experienced as part of the resolution and dénouement
5. How the conflict or problem in a drama is solved or concluded

Question 19

Dramatic sub-genres

Answer 19

Comedy
Tragedy

Question 20

Tragedy (def)

Answer 20

Form of drama concerned with the dramatic presentation of serious actions. Tragedy tries to raise the audience’s concern, to confront viewers with conflicts, which typically end in a catastrophe (usually involving the death of the protagonist and possibly others)

Question 21

3 features of tragedy

Answer 21

1. Tragic heros
   => of high social standing, the higher the deeper the tragic fall). Neiter entirely good or bad, but usually better than we are (round character). The tragic hero falls into adversity not through evil and depravity but through some kind of error.
2. Harmatia
   => character flaw or act committed in a state of violent passion or state of ignorance or conflict of social values. The reason for the hero’s fall. Common character flaw: hubris (presumption, excessive self-confidence)
3. Anagnorisis (recognition)
   => discovery of important facts hitherto unknown to the hero (through tokens such as scars, processes of memory or reconstruction). Often the recognition of a person’s true identity. According to Artistotle, ideally occurs simultaneously with a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances (peripeteia).

Question 22

5 more features of tragedy

Answer 22

1. Simplicity
   => tragic heroes tend to approach problems and situations in a fairly straight-forward manner. Life can be understood in simple biaries, good or bad, beautiful or ugly.
2. Emotional engagement
   => tragic heroes respond with strong, overpowering emotions (pride, lust, grief, rage). This often results in extreme attitudes and reactions.
3. Seriousness => the tragic vision takes its character and plots seriously.
4. Social isolation
   => tragedies tend to stress the individual and the consequences of the individual’s actions.
5. Spirit
   => the tragic visions tends to value the human spirit. Tragic heroes often long for some higher, greater level of life than common human existence

Question 23

Comedy (definition)

Answer 23

A play written chiefly to amuse its audience by appealing to a sense of superiority over the characters depicted. Its ending will usually be happy for the leading characters (like a wedding)

Question 24

Types of comedies

Answer 24

1. Comedy of humours:
   => characters controlled by a dominant human trait known as humours.
2. Comedy of manners:
   => form of dramatic comedy that depicts and often satirizes the manners and affectations of a society.
3. Romantic comedy : centred on a love affair

Question 25

7 features of comedy

Answer 25

1. Complex: comic heroes tend to be more flexible. Life tends to be messier, full of diversity and unexpected twists and turns.
2. Emotional disengagement: comic heroes are often ironic and disengaged from the situation: they tend to respond with wit, imagination or cynism. They tend to abstract themselves from their misfortunes.
3. Playfulness: even if it has its seriousness, the comic vision tends to treat large portions of lige as not quite so serious
4. Social integration: comedies tend to focus on the larger communiy and spend more time paying attention to the interaction btwn groups
5. Body: comic vision is very concerned with the human body and its sexual desires, bodily functions, and craving for food.
6. Low comedy: physical rather than intellectual => farce, comedians dell’arte, burlesque —> ridiculous exaggeration, a comical treatment of a serious subject.
7. High comedy: more sophisticated, emphasising verbal wit more than physical action, evokes intellectual laughter.

Question 26

Tragicomedy

Answer 26

Combines tragic and comic elements.
A play dealing with a tragic story, which end unhappily, but which contains certain elements of comedy and the remote possibility of a happy ending.
Mixing high and low characters