13 Approaching Drama
Drama and Theater
Like fiction, drama features characters caught up in a plot. In fact, some plays have been based on novels, and novels on plays. Yet, whereas the narrator of a novel can spend pages painting a picture of the story’s circumstances for the reader, a play is restricted to the space of the stage and the time frame of a couple of hours. What strategies are available to the playwright to ensure that the play successfully conveys its intended effects and themes?
Drama can, of course, demonstrate characteristics of poetry as well. As we mentioned previously, most of Shakespeare’s plays are in blank verse, for example. Character dialogue can also have poetic qualities. Also, many poems are/were intended to be performed, like drama.
What distinguishes drama, then, is its spectacle and production, which is the art of theater, by which a director, actors, set and costume designers, etc. interpret a written play based on what the playwright has provided by way of dialogue, stage directions, and the play’s dramatis personae (list of characters).
To provide the story’s setting, a play requires a set. If you’ve ever been involved with a play, you know that the set can be made up of detailed backdrops, specifically designed props, strategic lighting, and sometimes even background noise. It can also be minimal, or nothing more than a stage itself. Either way, the set, along with the characters’ subtle indications of the scene, can generate a full setting in the audience’s imagination. Another difference between fiction and drama is that usually a play’s plot is primarily forwarded through dialogue and action. Although a novel’s narrator can describe in detail the thoughts and impressions of its characters, a play’s effects depend much more heavily on what the characters say and do. A play is a performance, a spectacle, rather than words on paper. Some plays do include a narrator or a chorus, to introduce the scene or set the tone of the play, but the bulk of the production’s effect is generated through the dialogue and its visual devices, and since the play’s script dictates what the characters will say and often, through stage direction, its production strategies as well, the script is crucial to a successful performance.
Formal Elements of Drama
The elements of fiction discussed previously–plot, character, setting, conflict, and theme–can be applied to drama. An additional concept to consider relating to the plot of a play is the common convention of the play beginning in the middle of the action. The Greeks referred to this convention as in medias res (literally “in the midst of things”). A literary advantage for drama beginning in medias res is that without an exposition, the dramatic tension and conflict is presented immediately to the audience, which is more conducive to live performance.
An act is a major division in the action of the play, often used to demarcate key parts of the plot. Plays may have only one or as many as five or more acts. A scene is a smaller unit within an act, often signaled by the entrance or exit of a character or change in setting or focus of the action.
When analyzing character, the terms dialogue, monologue, and soliloquy take on increased importance. Conversation between two or more characters is referred to as dialogue (usually the majority of speech in plays consists of dialogue). A monologue is when one character delivers a speech to convey his or her thoughts, although other characters may remain on stage in scene. Similar to a monologue, a soliloquy is a speech made by one character but delivered when he or she is alone on stage or without regard to those who are. Knowing the root words of each term can help clarify the distinction. Monologue comes from the Greek words monos (single) and legein (to speak); soliloquy comes from the Latin words solus (alone) and Ioqui (to speak).
Clearly the setting of a play takes on extra importance as readers can pay close attention to the staging, costuming, and other directorial notes included in the text of the play. For example, the content of one scene can be set in an incongruous location or a character might be wearing a costume that contradicts the actions he is performing, thus resulting in dramatic irony. Understanding the subtleties between what is written as dialogue to be spoken by the actors and what is written to be gestured or achieved through lighting, scenery, costumes, props, and other elements of staging is critical for interpreting the meaning of a given scene. (The professional term for staging a character’s movements and position on the stage is known as blocking.)
As always, attention to the use of figurative language, whether presented in dialogue between characters or in monologue or soliloquy, will add layers of depth and compelling specificity to any analysis, and a robust consideration of the historical context, including relevant social issues or cultural norms (or resistance to those norms) represented directly or indirectly in the play will yield a more advanced level of thematic interpretation.
Attributions
“Drama and Theater” adapted from “Drama as a Genre ” by under a CC BY-SA.license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Tanya Long Bennett Links to an external site. (GALILEO Open Learning Materials .)
“Formal Elements of Drama” adapted from “Elements of Drama ” by University of Florida Jacksonville under CC BY: Attribution
