Theatre Part 4 Dramatic Genres

Genres There are 6 main types Each genre has different traits and evokes a different emotional response. 6 common dramatic genres Comedy Farce Tragedy Melodrama Tragicomedy

Comedy If the play made you laugh a lot and made you feel good because the story ended the way you wanted it to with all the right people paired up and the world restored to order, then the play was a comedy A comedy is the genre of play makes you laugh, has plots that end happily and reaffirms the values you hold to be important 3 types of comedies are a high comedy- is filled with elegant rich characters who are very concerned with how they behave examples of high comedies include English comedies of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw (The importance of Being Earnest and Man and Superman) Domestic comedy – usually about middle class people and much of the laughter results from the awkward and embarrassing situation the characters are put in by the crafty playwright examples include Neil Simons Barefoot in the Park, Brighton Beach Memoirs and the Sunshine Boys Low comedy – about characters we laugh at more because of what they do than because of what they say examples include the movie Dumb and Dumber and Larry Shue’s play The Nerd 3#view=detail&mid=A2082A80029EBE0FA8B4A2082A80029EBE0FA8B4 3#view=detail&mid=A2082A80029EBE0FA8B4A2082A80029EBE0FA8B4

Farce Farce is a play that makes you laugh a lot and lets you feel liberated by the wildly anarchic and improbable things that happen Example the road runner cartoon Farces are peopled with eccentric and/or stereotypic characters who speak in a very simple dialogue Usually have a fast tempo with characters running in and out of doors and meeting the very characters they shouldn’t The difference between a low comedy and farce is that in a farce the improbable happens and when we see it we feel joyously liberated because the constraints we live with are abandoned and mayhem prevails Examples of Farces include Micheal Frayn’s Noises off and Georges Feydeau A flea in Her Ear

Drama When you leave a performance of a serious play that makes you feel sad because the characters have been defeated you have encountered a drama The central character in a drama struggles fro something you believe is worth desiring and you root for the character to get it They truth is drama let us feel our deepest emotions without being personally involved Tennesse Williams The Glass Menagerie and August Wilson Fences are excellent examples of the genre we call “drama” Fences search?q=Clips+from+August+ Wilson%27s+Fences&qs=n&fo rm=QBVR&pq=clips+from+aug ust+wilson%27s+fences&sc=0- 11&sp=- 1&sk=#view=detail&mid=EF8C 7ABF3E65CD0B5E47EF8C7ABF 3E65CD0B5E47 search?q=Clips+from+August+ Wilson%27s+Fences&qs=n&fo rm=QBVR&pq=clips+from+aug ust+wilson%27s+fences&sc=0- 11&sp=- 1&sk=#view=detail&mid=EF8C 7ABF3E65CD0B5E47EF8C7ABF 3E65CD0B5E47

Tragedy Tragedy is the most misused term One reason for the misuse is that most of us have never experienced a tragedy-not in the theatre and not in our lives We regularly apply the term tragedy to anything sad, but a play that tries to make you feel sad is a drama not a tragedy A tragedy is a serious play that tries to make you feel exhilarated because the hero's experience teaches you some profound truth about your life; it guides you toward feeling a sort of calm affirmation that your worst expectations about life are true A tragedy touches you directly; you feel awe for the central character A tragedy makes you feel proud that such characters exist, but at the same time you feel pity for what happens to them Example Othello videos/search?q=Haml et+1996&Form=VQFRV P#view=detail&mid=B7 205C4552E4C4FE8E48 B7205C4552E4C4FE8E 48

Melodrama The plays we encounter most often and respond to the most enthusiastically are the plays that touch us least profoundly called melodramas Melodramas provide entertainment that has the appearance of being serious but ends with the protagonist being victorious A melodrama provides a story with many exciting twists that are intensified by the thrilling music used to underscore the action Melodramas don’t reflect the truth of life; they reflect the way you wish life could be Example of melodrama Indiana Jones, Star Wars or Inherit the Wind

Tragicomedy If you leave the theatre feeling agitated, frustrated, and anxious, you have seen a tragicomedy These are made up ppartly of the serious subject matter of tragedy and partly of the laugh inducing stuff of comedy You laugh at the serious things, you cry a the funny things and you feel disoriented and discombobulated The sense of safety is gone Examples include Eugene Ionesco’s The Bald Soprano and Samuel Becketts Waiting for Godot