Drama

Dramatization Drama-A work of literature that tells a story through action and speech and is meant to be acted on a stage for an audience. The dramatization of any text is “turning it into a play.” What is considered a ‘drama’? Play Opera Screenplay Teleplay

Check for Understanding Turn to your partner and name a play that you have seen or read. Also, tell your partner what a play is broken down into (instead of chapters).

Act vs. Scene Act- The main division of a play or opera. Acts are further divided into scenes. Scene- A division of an act during which there is no change of scene or break in time. Acts are written as Roman numerals (I,II,III…) while scenes are written either numerically (1,2,3, …) or with lowercase Roman numerals. (Act II, Scene iv)

Check for Understanding Turn to your partner, and in your own words, explain the difference between an act and a scene.

Stage basics The actors in a drama are called the cast. These are the people who portray the characters in the story. In order to better convey the story visually, actors often use props (short for properties) which are articles or objects that appear on stage during a play. Additionally, stage plays usually include a set. The set includes the design, decoration, and scenery of the stage during a play, usually meant to represent the location(s) in the drama. This set could be elaborate or very minimal, depending on the way time period or the way the script was written. In Shakespearean plays, actors often spoke words to indicate the setting - and even props – without having an elaborate set (or props!) to use.

Stage Directions Actors in a play work from a playwright’s script, which includes dialogue and stage directions. Most stage dramas consist entirely of dialogue and stage directions.

Dialogue and Stage Directions Dialogue- Conversation between two or more characters. (*The dialogue in a drama must move the plot along and reveal character.) In a play, the dialogue appears without quotation marks. Stage Directions-A playwright's descriptive or interpretive comments that provide readers (and actors) with information about the dialogue, setting, and action of a play. Importance and Purpose- Tells actors how to portray a character and how to move about the stage; tells readers how to envision and read the play.

Characters In a drama, characters are only revealed through stage directions and dialogue. Characters are often further revealed through a: Monologue or Soliloquy: A part of a drama in which one character who is alone onstage speaks aloud his or her thoughts and feelings. Within a play, this is the closest we can get to understanding a characters inner feelings. Aside: Words spoken by an actor directly to the audience, which are not "heard" by the other characters on stage during a play.

Comedy vs. Tragedy Comedy: A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the better. In comedy, things work out happily in the end. Comic drama may be either romantic--characterized by a tone of tolerance and geniality--or satiric. Satiric works offer a darker vision of human nature, one that ridicules human folly. Tragedy: A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse. In tragedy, catastrophe and suffering await many of the characters, especially the hero. Examples include Shakespeare's Othello and Hamlet and Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman

Remember a play still contains Characters Setting A conflict A plot (basic situation, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution) A theme All of the literary concepts still apply to a drama they are simply presented to the reader in a very different way.

Flashback One important term we need to review is flashback. Turn to your partner and explain what you think this term means.

FLASHBACK An interruption of a work's chronology to describe or present an incident that occurred prior to the main time frame of a work's action. In other words, a flashback is when a “time-out” occurs in the current action/time of the play. The scene “flashes back” to an earlier time period to provide information about the characters or background or history to help the readers or audience understand why events may be taking place the way they are now. The Outsiders was one giant flashback. Why?

Mini Research You will complete a miniature (one day!) research assignment tomorrow. Before I introduce the assignment, we are going to talk about how to include quotations in RESEARCH writing.

Including Quotations…Why do it? In a true research paper, you are answering a question or making a claim. You must SUPPORT your claim or answer with research from the professionals. Quotations add “beef” to your claim or make it more believable.

How do I include a quote? There are three major steps to including a quotation in a piece of writing 1. Introduce the quote 2. Include and punctuate the quote 3. Cite the quote

Step 1 It is important not to “bomb” your paper with quotations Instead you need to provide context/ introductory material Rule of thumb: use your own words before a quotation.

Examples Even though Anne was fondly thought of as “lively, and a joker” she also “had a serious side to her too” (Anne Frank House). Anne was so young when she went into hiding, but “in those two years she went from being a child to a young woman” (Anne Frank House). Anne and her mother had a complicated relationship filled with tension but “Anne realizes that their quarrels are also fueled by the unusual situation” (Anne Frank House).

Now you try Anne Frank is three years younger than Margot. Their personalities are very different.

Step 2: Include and punctuate After your own words you need to include the quotation with the proper punctuation

Punctuation Review If a quotation falls at the end of a sentence, a comma comes before the beginning of the quote. Example: Jamie said, “My favorite writer is Ray Bradbury” (Smith 101). If a quotation appears at the beginning of a sentence, a comma follows the end of the quote. Example: “I’ve just finished reading a book about Harriet Tubman,” biographer Alison said (Smith 1). If a quoted sentence is interrupted, a comma follows the first part and comes before the second part. Example: “Did you know,” asked Helen, “that O. Henry is the pseudonym of William Sydney Porter?”

Step 3 In-text citation Following your words and quotation, you need an in-text citation to give credit to the person who wrote the article, book, interview etc.

In-Text Citation The case tomorrow! In text citations MUST be used whenever you use any information from a source, whether you have paraphrased, summarized OR directly quoted. In text citation = (Author Last Name). If you don’t know the page numbers, use only the author’s last name. If you don’t know the author’s last name, use the publication = (Smithsonian). The case tomorrow!

Example Quotation Marks Anne was so young when she went into hiding, but “in those two years she went from being a child to a young woman” (Anne Frank House). Parenthesis **All citations got at the very END of your sentence no matter what** PERIOD—NOTICE THERE IS NO COMMA, PERIOD, ETC. after the quotation.

Your citation tomorrow is… (Anne Frank House).

Tomorrow www.annefrank.org