Drama Notes A drama, which is written to be performed by actors in front of an audience, is a story told mainly through the speech and actions of characters. Drama, like poetry, is a very old literary genre that was developed long before the novel and short story. The two major forms of drama are tragedy and comedy. Tragedy involves a serious moral struggle by the major character (protagonist), who is doomed by overwhelming circumstances or fate. Comedy refers to any story with a happy ending.

In earlier times, plays were written almost exclusively for performance in a theater—whether that theater was outdoors or indoors. In our own time we have had plays developed for different media. The five elements of drama are characters, setting, plot, dialogue, and acts and scenes. In addition, drama has its own conventions, or practices, including stage directions, sound effects, soliloquies, monologues, and asides; however, dialogue is the dramatist’s most important device for presenting character and for moving the action along. Drama Notes pg 2