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DRAMA
• Like poetry, drama is also an ancient form of
communal expression.
• Unlike modern fiction that encourages reflective
isolation and individuation in the act of reading,
dramas are best enjoyed when performed, with
the spectacle seen by an embodied audience.
DRAMA
• Like the storytellers of the oral tradition, those
who composed plays long ago did not exactly
originate content but rather recycled stories and
characters already known in the community into
fresh artistic expressions on stage.
What is drama?
• Drama is a type of literature telling a story, which is
intended to be performed to an audience on the
stage.
• Generally, while drama is the printed text of a play,
the word theatre often refers to the actual
production of the text on the stage. Theatre thus
involves action taking place on the stage, the
lighting, the scenery, the accompanying music, the
costumes, the atmosphere, and so on.
Origins and a Brief History of Drama
Drama is generally thought to have started in Greece
between 600 and 200 BC, although some critics trace
it to Egyptian religious rites of coronation.
Greek Drama:
In Greece, dramatic performances were associated with
religious festivals. The Greeks produced different types of
drama, mainly tragedy and comedy. Famous Greek
tragedians include Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
The best writer of
comedy was Aristophanes.
Roman Drama:
The Romans inherited the drama traditions
from the Greeks. The expansion of the
Roman Empire helped spread drama to
many places in Europe and the
Mediterranean world. Seneca is the most
important Roman tragedian.
A Roman Theatre
Medieval Drama:
The Middle Ages start with the fall of the Roman Empire. Most of
Classical learning was lost in medieval times. The Middle Ages were
dominated by religion and the study of theological matters. The
Christian doctrine and Christian values were the measure of
everything. During the Middle Ages, drama was looked down upon as
evil and a means of corruption. However, faced with the need to
spread the word of God to the illiterate masses, the Church came to
devise some form of dramatic performance to help in teaching
Christian beliefs and biblical stories. in which the characters personify
moral qualities (such as charity or vice) or abstractions (as death or
youth) and in which moral lessons are taught.
The three main types of medieval drama are
William Shakespeare
TRADITIONAL THEATER
Its Elements
DRAMA
Drama is a
composition in prose
form that presents a
story entirely told in
dialogue and action
and written with the
intention of its
eventual performance
before an audience.
Drama has a two-fold nature:
LITERATURE and THEATRE.
THEATRE
Setting identifies the time and place in which
the events occur. It consists of the historical
period, the moment, day and season in which the
incidents take place. It also includes the sceneries
in the performance which are usually found in
the preliminary descriptions.
Characters are the people in the play
and thus considered as the principal
material in a drama.
Character Aspects
Physical Social
Exposition
• Exposition is the point
where the playwright
commences his story. It
reveals the identity of
story’s initial crisis.
Middle is composed of a series of difficulties:
Complications Crisis