1. What Are the Elements of Drama?
Feature Menu
Origins of Drama
Forms of Drama
Tragedy
Comedy
Dramatic Structure
Setting the Stage
Dramatic Elements
Characters Onstage
Your Turn

2. Origins of Drama
A drama is a story enacted by actors on a stage for a live audience.

3. Origins of Drama Origins
The word drama comes from the Greek verb dran, which means “to do.”
The earliest known plays were
written around the fifth century B.C.
produced for festivals to honor Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility
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4. Forms of Drama
There are two main forms of classical drama: tragedy and comedy.

5. Forms of Drama A tragedy is a play that ends unhappily.
Most classic Greek tragedies deal with serious, universal themes such as
right and wrong
justice and injustice
life and death
Tragedies pit human limitations against the larger forces of destiny.

6. Forms of Drama
The protagonist of most classical tragedies is a tragic hero. This hero
pride
is noble and in many ways admirable
has a tragic flaw, a personal failing that leads to a tragic end
rebelliousness
jealousy

7. Forms of Drama
The foil is the character who is used to contrast another character—usually the tragic hero.
The foil is often an antagonist who displays a characteristic that is opposite of the hero.
cowardice
courage

8. Forms of Drama
A comedy is a play that ends happily. The plot usually centers on a romantic conflict.
boy meets girl
boy loses girl
boy wins girl
Modern comedies

9. Forms of Drama The main characters in a comedy could be anyone:
nobility
townspeople
servants

10. Forms of Drama
Comic complications always occur before the conflict is resolved.
In most cases, the play ends with a wedding.
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11. Forms of Drama Quick Check
Does this play sound like a comedy or a tragedy? How can you tell?
MABEL CHILTERN. How horrid you have been! You have never talked to me the whole evening!
LORD GORING. How could I? You went away with the child-diplomatist.
MABEL CHILTERN. You might have followed us. Pursuit would have been only polite. I don't think I like you at all this evening! LORD GORING. I like you immensely.
from An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde

12. Dramatic Structure A modern play may be tragedy, comedy, or a mixture
usually focuses on personal issues
usually is about ordinary people

13. Dramatic Structure
Like the plot of a story, the plot of a play involves characters who face a problem or conflict.
Climax
point of highest tension; action determines how the conflict will be resolved
Complications
tension builds
Resolution
conflict is resolved;
play ends
Exposition protagonist and conflict are introduced

14. Dramatic Structure
Conflict is a struggle or clash between opposing characters or forces. A conflict may develop
between characters who want different things or the same thing
between a character and his or her circumstances
within a character who is torn by competing desires

15. Dramatic Structure
In an external conflict, characters struggle against something or someone outside themselves.
Internal conflicts happen inside a character’s mind.
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16. Dramatic Structure
Quick Check
The brilliant yellowy-green skin and its great size made me certain it was a green mamba, a creature almost as deadly as the black mamba, and for a few seconds I was so startled and dumbfounded and horrified that I froze to the spot. Then I pulled myself together and ran round to the back of the house shouting, “Mr. Fuller! Mr. Fuller!”
“The Green Mamba”
What is the conflict? Is it an external or internal conflict?

17. Setting the Stage Stages can have many different sizes and layouts.
“Thrust” stage
The stage extends into the viewing area.
The audience surrounds the stage on three sides.
Stages in Shakespeare’s time

18. Setting the Stage
“In the round” stage is surrounded by an audience on all sides.

19. Setting the Stage Proscenium stage
The playing area extends behind an opening called a “proscenium arch.”
The audience sits on one side looking into the action.
upstage
stage right
stage left
downstage

20. Setting the Stage
Scene design transforms a bare stage into the world of the play. Scene design consists of
sets
lighting
costumes
props

21. realistic and detailed
Setting the Stage
A stage’s set might be
realistic and detailed
abstract and minimal

22. Setting the Stage
A lighting director skillfully uses light to change the mood and appearance of the set.

23. Setting the Stage
The costume director works with the director to design the actors’ costumes.
Like sets, costumes can be
detailed
minimal

24. Setting the Stage
Props (short for properties) are items that the characters carry or handle onstage.
The person in charge of props must make sure that the right props are available to the actors at the right moments.
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25. Setting the Stage Quick Check
[The headlights of a car suddenly illuminate CHARLEY against the wall. CHARLEY is leaning against the lamp post, in a very casual attitude, looking as dapper as usual. TERRY and EDIE run to him. The car drives off.
From On the Waterfront: The Final Shooting Script by Budd Schulberg. Copyright © 1980 by Budd Schulberg. Reproduced by permission of Miriam Altshuler Literary Agency on behalf of Budd Schulberg.
What stage, lighting, and props do you imagine when you read this setting?

26. Dramatic Elements
When you read a play, remember that it is meant to be performed for an audience.
Stage Directions
Playwright describes setting and characters’ actions and manner.
[Wyona is sitting on the couch. She sees Paul and jumps to her feet.]
Wyona. [Angrily.] What do you want?
Performance
Theater artists bring the playwright’s vision to life on the stage.
The audience responds to the play and shares the experience.

27. visual projections of a character’s private thoughts
Dramatic Elements
Modern playwrights often experiment with unconventional plot structures.
long flashbacks
music
visual projections of a character’s private thoughts
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28. Characters Onstage
The characters’ speech may take any of the following forms.
Dialogue: conversations of characters onstage
Monologue: long speech given by one character to others
Soliloquy: speech by a character alone onstage to himself or herself or to the audience
Asides: remarks made to the audience or to one character; the other characters onstage do not hear an aside

29. Characters Onstage Quick Check
LIZA. No: I dont want no gold and no diamonds. I'm a good girl, I am. [She sits down again, with an attempt at dignity].   
HIGGINS. You shall remain so, Eliza, under the care of Mrs. Pearce. And you shall marry an officer in the Guards, with a beautiful moustache: the son of a marquis, who will disinherit him for marrying you, but will relent when he sees your beauty and goodness—
from Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
What are the stage directions in this passage?
What does the characters’ dialogue tell you about them?
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30. What Are the Elements of Drama?
Your Turn
Analyze Drama
Name at least two differences between comedy and tragedy.
How might “fatal flaws” affect a character’s ability to make wise or informed choices?
Think of a movie. Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? What is the conflict, and how is it resolved?
Consider all of the theater jobs involved in putting on a play. Which do you think you would like to have? Why?

31. The End