DRAM120 Midterm Study Guide

What is performance?

a kind of performance that places the human experience before a group of people in the present moment

5 basic characteristics of performance

Arena, Audience, Actor, Arrangement, and Action

What makes theatre unique?

It’s a living art form/experience

What defines theatre’s aliveness, immediacy, duality, and illusion?

Aliveness - theatre continuing before us in the present until that final moment of the play, communication is immediate

Immediacy - actors and audience being placed in the present moment, theatre is the most immediate way of experiencing another’s concept of life 

Duality - theatre operates under a principle of duality, we are always somewhat conscious of the actor and character existing at once

Illusion - theatre creates the illusion that we are witnessing something for the first time every time, suspension of disbelief

What is theatre convention?

an agrees-upon method of getting something across quickly, drama’s way of setting up the plot and putting the action in motion

Difference between theme and motif

Theme is the abstract message or concept of the play, usually conveyed through actions, images, and motifs

Motifs are recurring elements (an idea, visual element, sound, etc.) that help develop and inform a play’s major themes

Difference between plot and story

Plot is the deliberate sequencing of events by the playwright (may not always be chronological)

Story is the chronological order of key occurrences (may not always be seen)

Core skillset of a playwright

• An ability to create spoken language

• Instinct for conflict, space, and time

• An understanding of how dramatic narrative or action can unfold

• Works to conceive and construct character within given circumstances

• Works within different structures to instruct how dramatic action unfolds

Best practices for play reading

• Consider reading it in one sitting, taking short breaks between the acts

• Notice the title

• Carefully read the cast of characters and any information that is given about them

• Read all stage directions, which can help you imagine what the play may look like onstage

• Think of the play as constructed of actions, not words, and visualize those actions

Traditional Playwrighting Structure

Exposition, Point of Attack, Complications, Crisis, Climax, Resolution

Exposition

Certain information is given at the beginning of a play; modern plays have less of this

Point of Attack

The moment in the platy when the story is taken up is the inciting incident

Complications

Makes up the middle of the play, usually with increasing intensity

Crisis

A major turning point in the play, an event that makes the resolution of the play’s conflict inevitable

Climax

The point of the highest emotional intensity (catharsis)

Resolution

Traditionally restores balance or satisfies the audience’s expectations, a sense of completion or suspended action

Climactic Structure

A cause-to-effect arrangement, confines the character’s activities and intensifies the pressure on the character until they are forced into irreversible acts

Episodic Structure

A structure that traces through a journey of sorts to a final action and to an understanding of what the journey meant

Situational Structure

The situation is what drives the play, not the plot or arrangement

Stage Directions

Right and left are from the POV of the actor facing the audience

Upstage is away from and downstage is towards the audience,

Who is Aristotle?

Greek philosopher, student of Plato and Socrates, and is considered the first dramatic critique

What was Aristotle’s contribution to theatre?

• Wrote The Poetics, which described what drama was and how it is structured

• Defined catharsis as a safe release of intense emotions

• Composed the 6 Elements of Drama

Aristotle’s 6 Elements of Drama

• Plot: an arranged sequence of events that come from an action or motive (usually with a beginning, middle, and end)

• Character: the physiological and psychological make-up of the people in the play, shown through action and dialogue

• Thought/idea: the themes or meaning of the play

• Spectacle: includes all visual and aural elements (music, props, machines, lighting, scenery)

• Language: the spoken word, symbols, signs, and gestures (including body language and usage of space)

• Music/Rhythm: songs/odes, scoring, verse, and rhythmic language (Greek chorus)

4 characteristics that define Dramatic Tragedy

• affords distance and perspective

• provides context for experience

• provides a moral setting for the conflict

• releases tension (catharsis)

What makes a tragic hero?

a noble or virtuous character who has a major flaw that leads them to make a fatal mistake

What tools of analysis have been identified in Backwards and Forwards and how do they work?

Categories of Context

• historical (social, political, and cultural environment)

• theatrical (larger artistic traditions and institutions behind the play)

• biographical (the playwright’s background, specific circumstances at the time)

• dramaturgical (precedents of dramatic structure/genre, story influences/orgins)

Why is context an important consideration?

the knowledge of the circumstances in which the play was written, deepens our understanding of why the play is the way that it is

Previous Action and Exposition

Character Maps

Tent Pole Analysis

Dramatic Action

Dramatic Events

Driving Questions

How do scenic elements contribute to the story telling on stage

How did the values of the Renaissance influenced Shakespeare’s writing

Parts of an Elizabethan Theatre

Shakespearean word play

Iambic Pentameter

Important Elizabethan Theatre Contributors

Elizabethan wordplay

Role of theatre during the Protestant reformation/restoration

Characteristics of Comedy

Subsets of Comedy

• Comedy of Humors (one trait overshadows all others)

• Comedy of Manners (realistic, satirical, farcical comedy concerned with high society and stock characters)

• Comedy of Intrigue (romance and adventure)

Characteristics of French Comedy

• women on stage

• asides

• bawdy

• material wealth

• sexual pleasure

• stock characters

Characteristics of Comedy of Manners

• the amorous intrigues of the upper class, a very tight-knit societies

• repartee: witty dialogue, verbal fencing

• Fops and Dandies violated social norms and mores

Dandy

places importance on dress and appearance, refined language, and aristocratic

Rake

was the anti-hero, who pursues lust and self-indulgence

Fop

the opposite of a rake, lacking wit and manners, excessive

Thrust Stage

Proscenium Arch

Proscenium Stage

Apron

the area in front of the proscenium arch

Examples of Dramatic conventions

Stage directions, prologue, epilogue, masks, asides, soliloquies, song, dance, and metaphor