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.
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.
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.
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

mystery plays, about Bible stories,
miracle plays about the lives of saints and the miracles they performed, and
morality plays, 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 Renaissance:
The Renaissance is the period that followed the Middle Ages. It started in Italy in the fourteenth
century and spread to other parts of Europe. The word Renaissance is a French word which means
rebirth. The Renaissance period witnessed a new interest in learning and discovery of the natural
world. The works of the Greek and Roman writers were rediscovered. The invention of the printing
press helped make the production of books easier and cheaper, hence, available to more people.
During the Renaissance, the works of Greek and Roman dramatists were rediscovered and imitated.
Plays were no longer restricted to religious themes. This happened first in Italy and spread then to
other parts of Europe.
In England, drama flourished during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), who was a patron of
literature and the arts. Theatres were built in London and people attended plays in large numbers.
The most important dramatists were William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe.
Traditional theatre did not always require a stage.
 In the Philippines, folk and indigenized dramatic forms like the panunuluyan are communal
reenactments of familiar stories, in this case the biblical tale of Mary and Josephs search for a place to
stay on the night Jesus was born.
Dramatic Terms
Playwright: The writer of plays (dramatist)
Stage directions: Instructions written in the script of a play, describing the setting and indicating
actions and movements of the actors.
Protagonist: The main character in a play.
Antagonist: The character opposing the main character.
Tragic hero: A character of high repute, who, because of a tragic flaw and fate, suffers a fall from glory
into suffering.
Tragic flaw: A weakness or limitation of character, resulting in the fall of the tragic hero.
Dramatis Personae: "People of Drama" in Latin; a list of the characters in a play, usually found on the
first page of the script.
Blank Verse: Unrhymed iambic pentameter verse. It is the preeminent dramatic verse English (as in
the plays of Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare).
Chorus: The course in Greek drama is a group of actors who speak or sing together, commenting on
the action.
In Elizabethan drama, the course consisted of one actor who recites the prologue and epilogue to a
play and sometimes comments on the action (As in Doctor Faustus).
Comic Relief: Humorous episodes in a play that is mainly tragic.

ELEMENTS OF DRAMA
SETTING
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
Characters are the people in the play and thus considered as the principal material in a drama.
PLOT
Plot lays out the series of events that form the entirety of the play. It serves as a structural framework which
brings the events to a cohesive form and sense.
Beginning identifies information about the place, such as geographical location, social, cultural,
political background or period when the event took place.
Exposition is the point where the playwright commences his story. It reveals the identity of storys
initial crisis.
Middle is composed of a series of difficulties:
Complications bring changes and alterations in the movement of the action which take place
when discovery of novel information, unexpected alteration of plan, choosing between two
courses of action or preface of new ideas are revealed.
Crisis reveals the peak of anticipation in the series of incidents
Obligatory Scene identifies the open collision between two opposing characters or forces.
Discovery discloses points which are previously unknown, characterized as something
mysterious, strange, unfamiliar and thus revealed through objects, persons, facts, values, or
self-discovered
Ending is the final major component of the story which brings the condition back to its stability.
This part brings satisfaction to the audience which extends to the final curtain as peace is
completely restored.
THEME
Theme is considered as the unifying element that defines the dramatized idea of the play. It is
the over-all sense or implication of the action. It defines the problem, emphasizes the ethical
judgment and suggest attitude or course of action that eliminates the crisis is an acceptable
way.
 STYLE refers to the mode of expression or presentation of the play which points out the playwrights
position or viewpoint in life.
GENRES OF DRAMA
Tragedy is a type of drama that shows the downfall and destruction of a noble or outstanding person,
traditionally one who possesses a character weakness called a tragic flaw. The tragic hero, through
choice or circumstance, is caught up in a sequence of events that inevitably results in disaster.
Comedy is a type of drama intended to interest and amuse the audience rather than make them
deeply concerned about events that happen. The characters overcome some difficulties, but they
always overcome their ill fortune and find happiness in the end.
Tragicomedy is a play that does not adhere strictly to the structure of tragedy. This is usually serious
play that also has some of the qualities of comedy. It arouses thought even with laughter.
Farce is a play that brings laughter for the sake of laughter, usually making use grossly embellished
events and characters. It has very swift movements, has ridiculous situations, and does not stimulate
thought.
Melodrama shows events that follow each other rapidly, but seems to be governed always by chance.
The characters are victims in the hands of merciless fate.
SPECTACLE
In drama, there is usually no narrator, the audience is invited to infer meaning from the characters actions,
words, and the props on stage and on other sensorial embellishments (costumes, lightings, music, sound
effects, etc.).
Spoken words in the stage may be classified into four:
1. When a single character delivers a long speech, it is called MONOLOGUE.
2. When that long speech is delivered as though the character is speaking to himself/herself alone on the
stage, it is called SOLILOQUY.
3. When characters speak to one another, the exchange of the words is called DIALOGUE.
4. When a character steps out of the scene for a while to confidentially address the audience, perhaps to
comment about the scene or another character, it is called ASIDE.
Plays are largely classified into two according to purpose:
Tragedy
Comedy
The purpose of tragedy is to elicit two emotions from the audience: pity and fear, to produce
CATHARSIS or emotional release from the audience.
To attain the purpose of tragedy, the protagonist called a tragic hero must be highly relatable to the
audience in that he/she, like a typical human being, possesses a noble character yet afflicted with a
weakness called a tragic flaw.
This weakness, minor in comparison to the hugeness of the characters noble traits, nevertheless
causes his/her downfall. The result is called tragic fall, or an overdetermined series of events that have
snowballed into inevitable, and to some degree undeserved ruin.