1. A Brief History of Drama
Major Developments

2. Drama – To be, or not to be, that is the question
Drama – a literary composition involving conflict, action crisis and atmosphere designed to be acted by players on a stage before an audience. This definition may be applied to motion picture drama as well as to the traditional stage.
Drama had it’s origin in the country of Greece around 500 B.C.
Drama, as a literary genre, is an art form that is meant to be performed!

3. Greek Theatre
The Greek Theatre or Greek Drama is a theatrical tradition that flourished in ancient Greece between c. 550 and c. 220 B.C. in Athens. Athens was the centre of ancient Greek theatre. Tragedy (late 6th century B.C.), comedy (~486 B.C.) and satyr plays were some of the theatrical forms to emerge in the world. Greek theatre and plays have had a lasting impact on Western drama and culture.

4. Greek Theatre continued
The earliest dramas were designed to worship to gods and goddesses, specifically Bacchus and Dionysus
The Greek tragedies of Aeschychus, Sophocles and Euripides were performed annually at the spring festival of Dionysus, god of wine and inspiration.

5. The Greeks In 534 B.C a contest was won by Thespis in Athens.
He is the first recorded winner of this contest. Tragedy (the group word “tragoidia” began with the introduction of an actor, who played various roles by changing masks, whose actions the chorus commented on in song.
Thespis according to Themistius’s account, was the first “actor” and usually credited with “inventing” drama as we know it (actors speaking lines) –thus actors are know known as Thespians
The Greeks

6. Decline of Drama
Drama went into a period of decline around A.D. 400 (Roman Empire)
Due to the Power of Christians
Acting has been deemed at times to be unchristian, idolatrous and depraved or, worse, boring. Actors themselves have frequently been seen to be one of the humbler classes, and only towards the end of the 19th century did their status start to improve

7. Revival of Drama
A. D
Medieval Drama, when it emerged hundreds of years later, was a new creation rather than a rebirth. The drama of earlier times having almost no influence on it. The reason for this creation came from a quarter that had traditionally opposed any form of theatre: The Christian church

8. Medieval Drama Purpose: Teach religion Types of acceptable drama:
1. )Miracle plays – lives of saints.
2.) Morality plays – being good/ moral
3.) Mystery plays – life of Christ

9. Middle Ages Theatre
During the Middle Ages, most plays were about the lives of saints and/or Bible stories.

10. Renaissance Drama Ruler: Elizabeth I
Renaissance Drama is English drama written before the Reformation and the closure of theatres in It may also be called early modern English theatre or (misaccurately) Elizabethan theatre. It includes the drama of William Shakespeare, the most notable playwright during this period.
One distinctive feature of the companies that put on Elizabethan plays was that they included only males.

11. Elizabethan Drama
Shakespeare
Christopher Marlowe
Thomas Kyd
John Lyly

12. Victorian/Modern English drama
Oscar Wilde
George Bernard Shaw
The Abbey Theatre: key figures were W.B. Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory; opened in Dublin in 1903 and helped to produce new Irish plays (J.M. Synge)

13. Modern Drama Primary characteristic – realism
Some of the major forms of drama are:
Tragedy
Comedy
Melodrama
Most importantly, drama, as a literary genre, is an art form that is meant to be performed.

14. Dramatic Terminology
Literary Terms

15. Acts and Scenes
Subdivisions in the play when the time or place usually changes
Acts – big breaks (in Shakespeare plays usually 5 Acts)
Scenes – smaller breaks within acts (usually one or two per act)
Act III
Act IV
Act II
Act I
Act V

16. Aside
A dramatic device in which a private thought is spoken aloud. It is intended for the audience alone – not other characters in the play
Contributes to dramatic irony –
(the audience knows something
other characters in the play
do not)

17. 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, usually in marriage.
Comedy Mask

18. Tragedy
A type of drama in which the characters experience reversals of fortune, usually for the worse
Tragedy

19. Dialogue
Conversations among characters

20. Drama
One of the three main types of literature; it tells a story through the words and actions of a character .
Additional
Information

21. Intermission
A break in the performance of the play

22. Monologue
A speech delivered by one person

23. Playwright
The author of a drama

24. Props
Articles or objects that appear on stage during a play

25. Script
The written version of the play

26. Stage directions
Instructions to the performer and the director; usually written in italics or parentheses

27. Staging
The effect the play has on its audience – including the position of actors, the scenic background, the props and costumes, and the lighting and sound effects

28. Subplot
An additional or minor or parallel plot in a play or story that coexists with the main plot

29. Thespians
Actors and actresses