The Structure of Drama

1
The Structure of Drama

• Narrative Essentials
• Exposition
• Plot
• Characters
• Theme

2
Tradition and Innovation in Drama

• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
• Drama is an imitation of life, that we learn
  through imitation of life, and that learning is
  the greatest pleasure in life (Schanker
  Ommanney, 1997)

3
Aristotles Key Elements of A Play

• Plot
• Character
• Diction (language)
• Reasoning (the way speech is used to present all
  aspects of the play, including, the production of
  emotions such as pity, terror, and anger).
• Sound (audible part of the play)
• Spectacle (visible part of the play)
• (p. 254)

4
Exposition

• The process of making facts known to the
  audience.
• Good playwrights know that information without
  action is often uninteresting.
• What, where, when, and who?
• Atmosphere, mood (emotional feeling of the play)
• Preliminary situation (antecedent action) what
  happened in the lives of the people in the play
  before the play)

5
Plot

• Series of events that take place before an
  audience.
• The development and resolution of the major
  conflict.

6
Plot Structure

• Preliminary Situation
• Incidental action
• Rising action
• Climax
• Falling action
• Conclusion

7
Selections from Georges Poltis Thirty-six
Dramatic Situations

• Crimes pursued
• Revolt
• Abduction
• Rivalry of Kinsmen
• Madness
• Self-sacrificing for an ideal
• Self-sacrifice for a Kinsmen
• Crimes of love
• Ambition
• All thirty-six dramatic situation can be found in
  Schanker and Ommanny (1997, p. 260)

8
Characters

• Hold the audience attention throughout the play
• Minor characters should have interesting and
  unique personalities
• Motivation
• What does this character need or want?
• Who or what stands in the way of the characters
  needs or wants?
• What conditions affect the characters thoughts,
  words, and actions?
• Why does this character say or do certain things?

9
Theme

• The theme of the play is the specific idea that
  gives unity and purpose to everything that
  happens.
• Themes stated in titles
• Whose Life Is It Anyway?
• You Cant Take It With You
• Man Of Lamancha (theme in text)
• To much sanity may be madness, but the maddest
  of all is to see life as it is and not as it
  should be.